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Book ,~&7 

IB45 

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LIFE AND REMAINS 



OF THE 



REV. JOHN BROWN, 



LATE MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL AT HADDINGTON. 



I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept 
the faith : henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, 
which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.— 2 Tim. 
iv. 7, 8. 



ABERDEEN: 

GEORGE AND ROBERT KING, 
28, ST, NICHOLAS STREET. 

1845, 



X 



PEEFAOE. 



That the subjects of the following papers are 
serious and interesting, we suppose, will be 
readily admitted. It is, however, judged neces- 
sary that we attest, that the papers themselves 
are the genuine productions of our father. 

1. The Memoies were, in substance, written 
by his own hand, two or three years before he 
died. It was his care to mark the singular dis- 
pensations of providence towards him ; and then 
prudently to declare them to his children, that 
they also might set their hope in God. 

2. The Lettees were sent by him to some 
intimate friends. We need scarce inform the 
reader, that the author never had the most re- 
mote thought of their being printed. Some of 



IV. 



PREFACE. 



tlie persons who had them in possession, finding 
their own hearts warmed with the trnths which 
they contained, expressed a willingness to haye 
them made public, for the edification of others. 

3. The Tracts were composed by him, and 
published in London ; some of them in the 
Gospel Magazine, and the rest in the Theological 
Miscellany, As comparatively few haye seen 
them in these treasures of diyine knowledge, it 
was thought, that by the reprinting of them in 
this collection, they would be of more general 
seryice. 

4. The Advices to the children and to the 
congregation, were found among our father's 
papers after his decease. He was convinced in 
his own mind, that union to Christ, evidenced by 
conformity to him in holiness, "is the one thing 
needful :" this was the doctrine which he 
taught whilst he lived ; and he intended that 
these advices should declare his sentiments on 
this subject, when he was dead. 

5. The Dyixg "Words were almost all written 
down when uttered ; and, as the writer behoved 



PREFACE. 



V. 



to attend to the duties of his station , in a distant 
part of the country, much of what was said in 
his absence was forgotten. It will be admitted 
by all who were acquainted with the deceased, 
that, although he had a peculiar pleasure in 
relating the well-attested accounts of the expe- 
riences of others, yet, with respect to his own, 
he was very reserved. If in the end of his life 
he expressed his confidence in the strongest 
terms, it can only be imputed to the fulness of 
his inward persuasion. If at last he was free 
in mentioning God's gracious dealings with his 
soul, it will be remembered, that it was only 
among a circle of friends and acquaintances. 
But, indeed, his heart was so much filled with 
the admiration of the love of God, that "he 
could not but speak the things which he had 
seen and heard." 

No doubt the Editors will be censured by 
some, as too partial to the memory of their 
deceased father, in offering these papers to the 
public. We, however, flatter ourselves, that 
the pleasing hope of being instrumental in doing 



vi. PREFACE. 

good to souls, will always more than overbalance 
any uneasiness arising from reflections of this 
kind. 

If some secure hypocrites are awakened, some 
profane sinners are converted, some wavering 
Christians are established, and some distressed 
souls are comforted ; we have fully gained our 
end in the publication. 

That the Lord may make the perusal of these 
Select Remains, effectual for accomplishing 
such valuable purposes on many, is the prayer 
of their servants in the work of the gospel, 

John Brown, 
Ebenezer Brown. 

Feb. 6, 1789. 



CONTENTS. 



Page, 

Preface, iii. 

Memoirs of Mr. Brown's Life, 9 

A Dedication of himself to the Lord, 20 

Letters, 22 

Tracts— 

L Meditation upon Christ's being made of God to 

us Sanctification, 42 

II. A Contrast of the Purchase and Application of 

Redemption, 49 

III. Reflections of a Soul shut up to the Faith, ... 54 

IV. Reflections of a Christian upon his spiritual 

Elevations and Dejections, 59 

V. Reflections of a Candidate for the Ministerial 

Office, 64 

VI. Reflections of one entered into the Pastoral 

Office, 71 

VII. Reflections of a Minister encouraging himself in 

Christ, 79 

VIII. On Conditional Election and Free-will, 86 

IX. The Parliament Dissolved, 91 

X. The Grand Poll, 94 



vm. 



CONTENTS. 



XI. State of Britain's Debt to God, 3 03 

XII. Britain's Sole Preservative, 113 

XIII. Christ the Best Minister of State, 118 

XIV. Blanchard's Travel excelled, 124 

XV. A sore-vexed Soul delivered, 126 

The Author's Dying Advice to his Younger 

Children, 135 

Dying Words, 141 

The Author's Dying Advice to his Congregation, 

and other Hearers, 188 



MR. 



MEMOIES 

OF 

BROWN'S LIFE. 



The Rev. John Brown was born in the year 1722, 
in a little village called Carpou, in the county of 
Perth, Scotland. The narrative of his experience 
which he left behind him is as follows : — 

The more I consider the dealings between God 
and my soul, 1 am the more amazed at his marvellous 
kindness to me, and at my ingratitude and rebellion 
against him. 

I reflect on it as a great mercy, that I was born in 
a family which took care of my christian instruction, 
and in which I had the privilege of God's worship 
both morning and evening. This was the case in 
few families in that corner ; and it was the more re- 
markable, considering that my father had not got 
any regular instruction in reading. 

About the eighth year of my age, I happened in a 
crowd to push into the church at Abernethy, on a 
sacrament Sabbath. Then it was common for all 

B 



10 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



but intended communicants to be excluded. Before 
I was excluded, I heard one or two tables served by 
a minister, who spake much to the commendation of 
Christ : this in a sweet and delightful manner capti- 
vated my young affections, and has since made me 
think that children should never be kept out of the 
church on such occasions. At this period of life my 
thirst after knowledge was great, and indeed pride 
often instigated me to diligence. My parents' circum- 
stances were such, that they were not able to afford 
me any great length of time at school for reading, 
writing, and arithmetic. I had a particular delight 
in learning by heart the catechisms published by Vin- 
cent, Flavel, and the Westminster Assembly, and was 
much profited by them. One month at school, with- 
out my parents' allowance, I bestowed upon the Latin. 

My father dying about the eleventh year of my age, 
and my mother soon after, I was left a poor orphan, 
and had nothing to depend on but the providence of 
God ; and, I must say that the Lord hath been u the 
father of the fatherless, and the orphan's stay." 

In the thirteenth and fourteenth years of my life, 
the Lord by his word, read and heard, did often strive 
with my soul for its good. The perusal of Alleine's 
" Alarm to the Unconverted" contributed, in some 
measure, to awaken my conscience, and to move my 
affections. However, some of his hints, made worse 
by my corrupt mind, occasioned my legal covenant- 
ing with God. I made much the same use of that 
excellent book, Guthrie's 44 Trial of a saving Interest 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



11 



in Christ." Indeed, such was the bias of my heart 
under her convictions, that I was willing to do any 
thing rather than flee to Christ, and trust to his free 
grace alone for my salvation. 

I had no small pleasure, about this time, in read- 
ing religious books, such as the Bible, " Rutherford's 
Letters," u Gouge's Directions how to walk with 
God," &c. By means of attention to these, I was 
led into some measure of tenderness in my external 
behaviour. The impressions which were made on 
my mind, by the sermons which I heard, and the 
books which I read, were on certain occasions very 
great, and sometimes continued for several days. 
Under these I was much given to prayer, but con- 
cealed all my religious exercises to the utmost of my 
power. Within a few months after my mother's 
death, I was seized four times with fevers, which 
succeeded each other rapidly, and which brought me 
so low, that almost every person who saw me lost all 
hopes of my recovery : though I did not expect im- 
mediate death in those troubles, yet apprehensions of 
eternity exceedingly affected me. A serious friend 
told me, after I was recovered, that, when she was 
praying in my behalf, these words, u I will satisfy 
him with long life, and I will show him my salva- 
tion," were so impressed by God on her heart, that 
she was perfectly easy under all my distress. 

Deprived of my parents, I was obliged to leave a 
small religious family, and to enter into a larger. 
This was attended with much practical apostacy from 



12 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



the Lord. My former attainments were lost, and 
religious exercises were often omitted. Even secret 
prayer was not always regularly performed ; but I in 
my folly pleased myself, by making up the number in 
one day, in which I had been deficient on another. 

After many changes in the frame of my heart, Pro- 
vidence again afflicted me with a fever in the nine- 
teenth year of my age: this in some degree awakened 
my concern about eternal salvation. 

After my recovery, I heard a sermon on John vi. 
64, " There are some of you that believe not." This, 
though delivered by one that was reckoned a general 
preacher, pierced my conscience, as if almost every 
sentence had been directed to none but me ; and it 
made me conclude myself one of the greatest unbe- 
lievers in the world. My soul was thrown into a 
sort of agony, and I was made to look on all my for- 
mer experiences as effects of the common operations 
of the Holy Ghost. In this manner I viewed them 
for many years afterwards, till at last God showed 
me, that 1 was wrong in throwing aside all ray at- 
tainments, as having nothing really gracious in them. 

Next day I heard a sermon on Isa. liii. 4, u Surely 
he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." 
This enlightened and melted my heart in a way that 
I had never before felt. I was made as a poor lost 
sinner, as the chief of sinners, to essay appropriating 
the Lord Jesus as having done all for me, and as 
wholly made over to me, in the gospel, as the free 
gift of God ; and as my all-sufficient Saviour, an- 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



13 



severable to all my folly, ignorance, guilt, filthiness, 
slavery, and misery. Through this, and other ordi- 
nances, the pleasure which I had enjoyed in some 
former years, was not only remarkably returned, but 
I attained far clearer views of the freedom of God's 
grace, and the exercise of taking hold of, and plead- 
ing the promises of the gospel. I had not been much 
above a year, when I was exercised with a new trial 
of five years' continuance. In consequence of my an- 
xious pursuit after learning, as opportunity was given , 
and especially by the gracious assistance of God, I 
had acquired some knowledge of the Latin, Greek, 
and Hebrew languages ; and was resolving to use 
them in the service of Christ, if he should open a 
regular door. My learning of these languages with- 
out a master, except for one month, occasioned my 
obtaining the favour of some, and my meeting with 
the malice of others. By the last it was represented, 
that I had certainly got my learning in some sinful 
way ; and this groundless calumny spread far and 
wide. The reproach was exceedingly distressing to 
me ; however, God was gracious, for I enjoyed re- 
markable mixtures of mercy with the affliction. At 
the beginning of the trial, these words, 44 The Lord 
will command his loving-kindness in the day-time, 
and his song shall be with me in the night, and my 
prayer to the God of my life," were peculiarly sweet 
to my soul. 

The members of the praying society to which I 
belonged, continued my steady friends, and were more 
b 2 



14 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



kind to me now than before. My acquaintance with 
the world being extended, many others also mani- 
fested remarkable sympathy. But my chief support 
under the calumny was the words of truth, which 
the Lord enabled me to believe. At sacramental 
occasions, at Dunfermline, Bruntisland, and Glas- 
gow, he marvellously refreshed my soul, and made 
these years the most pleasant that ever I had, or per- 
haps ever shall have on earth. 

Discourses on these texts; Heb. x. 37, " Yet a 
little while, and he that shall come will come Ezek. 
xxxvii. 12, " Behold, O my people, I will open your 
graves !" and Psalm xci. 2, u I will say of the Lord, 
he is my refuge ;" and a meditation on Psalm v, 1, 
u But as for me, I will come into thy house in the 
multitude of thy mercy ;" were peculiarly ravishing. 
Meanwhile, the Lord, by the reproach which was 
cast upon me, led me out to ponder my own heart 
and way, and made me to see myself before him as a 
devil, and much worse. This excited me to submit 
to my lot, and kept me from exposing my slanderers. 
Micah's words much affected my heart ; chap. vii. 
8 — 10, " Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; 
when I fall I shall arise ; when I sit in darkness the 
Lord shall be a light unto me," &c. Then, and ever 
since, I have found that the Lord hath most plainly 
vindicated me when I have made the least carnal 
struggling for my own honour. I could not but 
remark too, that the sting, which I had found in my 
learning, tended to keep me humble under what I 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



15 



had attained ; and the false reproaches which I then 
met with, have made me all along less credulous of 
what I have heard charged upon others. On these, 
and other accounts, I have since looked upon that 
affliction as a kind providence to my soul. By a 
wonderful variety of dispensations, the Lord gra- 
ciously opened a way for my getting some regular 
instruction in philosophy and divinity ; and I was 
licensed to preach the everlasting gospel in the year 
1750. I could not but be affected, that about this 
time, if not the same night in which I was licensed, 
my primary calumniator was excommunicated by his 
supporters. Behold, O my soul, " the goodness and 
severity of God" — towards him severity, and towards 
me (perhaps ten thousand times worse) goodness. 
Let me never be high-minded, but fear. 

On the morning before I was licensed, that awful 
text was much impressed on my spirits ; Isa. vi. 9, 10, 
u He said, Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, 
but understand not ; see ye indeed, but perceive not. 
Make the heart of this people fat, and make their 
ears heavy, and shut their eyes ; lest they see with 
their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand 
with their heart, and convert and be healed." Since 
I was ordained at Haddington, I know not how often 
it hath been heavy to my heart, to think how much 
this scripture hath been fulfilled in my ministry. 
Frequently I have had an anxious desire to be re- 
moved by death, from being a plague to my poor 
congregation. Often, however, I have taken myself. 



16 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



and have considered this wish as my folly, and begged 
of the Lord, that if it was not for his glory to remove 
me by death, he would make me successful in my 
work. As to transportations, I never had a good 
opinion of the most of them ; and I always looked 
upon it as so far a mercy, that my congregation was 
small. After all, I dare not but confess, that Christ 
is the best master I ever served : he hath often laid 
matter before me, and enabled me with pleasure to 
deliver his mind. Any little knowledge which I have 
had of my uncommonly wicked heart, and of the 
Lord's dealings with my own soul, hath helped me 
much in my sermons ; and I have observed, that I 
have been apt to deliver that which I had experienced, 
in a more feeling and earnest manner than other 
matters. 

No sermons that ever I preached were, I think, 
more sweet to my own soul, than those on the fol- 
lowing texts: — Psalm cxlii. 7, 4 ' Bring my soul out 
of prison;" Isa. xliv. 5, 44 One shall say, I am the 
Lord's ;" chap. xlvi. 5, " Even to your old age, I 
am He chap. lx. 20, 44 The days of thy mourn- 
ing shall be ended ;" 1 Tim. i. 15, 16, 44 This is a 
faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners;" 
Rev. iii. 21, 44 To him that overcometh will I grant 
to sit with me on my throne;" and John xi. 28, 44 The 
master is come, and calleth for thee." 

Now, after near forty years preaching of Christ, 
and his great and sweet salvation, I think that I 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



17 



would rather beg my bread, all the labouring days of 
the week, for an opportunity of publishing the gospel 
on the Sabbath, to an assembly of sinful men, than 
without such a privilege to enjoy the richest posses- 
sions on earth. 4t By the gospel do men live ; and 
in it is the life of my soul." O the kindness of God ! 
Many, whose parents have been spared with them far 
longer than I had mine, are now in deep poverty, or, 
what is infinitely worse, are abandoned to all manner 
of wickedness ; while, by strange means, the Lord 
hath preserved and restrained me. From low cir- 
cumstances, God hath, by his mere grace, exalted 
the orphan to the highest station in the church ; and, 
I hope, hath given me some success, not only in 
preaching and in writing, but also in training up 
many for the ministry. He chose me to be his ser- 
vant, and took me from the sheepfold, from follow- 
ing the ewes great with young ; he brought me to 
feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. 
" Lord, what am I, and what is my father's house, 
that thou hast brought me hitherto !" Upon a re- 
flection on God's outward providence, I look upon it 
as a mercy, that, considering the dreadful pride of 
my heart, God did not make my talent to lie so pro- 
perly, in a quick and extensive view of things at first 
but rather in a close, persevering, and unwearied ap- 
plication to that in which I engaged. In the former 
respect, I was always much inferior to many of my 
brethren. I cannot but remark it, also, as a kind- 
ness in providence, that though, when I commenced 



18 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



a preacher, iny imagination sometimes led me to use 
flighty expressions in my sermons, the Lord made 
me ashamed of this, as a real robbery from him, to 
sacrifice to my own accursed pride. Since that time, 
notwithstanding my eager hunting after all the law- 
ful learning which is known among the sons of men, 
God hath made me generally to preach as if I had 
never read another book but the bible. I have es- 
sayed to preach scriptural truths in scriptural lan- 
guage. 

When I consider my earthly-mindedness, 1 ad- 
mire the almighty grace of God, in so disposing my 
heart, that it has rather been my care to manage 
frugally what God provided for me, than greedily to 
grasp at more. 

I think, with respect to my congregation, that I 
have aimed at seeking them, and not theirs ; and I 
am convinced their charitable belief of this hath dis- 
posed them all along to regard me, and to afford me 
sufficient subsistence ; yet " it was not I, but the 
grace of God, which did all." I have looked upon 
it, also, as a gracious overruling of my mind, that 
though I have often grudged paying a penny or two 
for a trifle, the Lord hath enabled me cheerfully to 
bestow as many pounds for pious purposes ; and, 
owing to kind Providence, my wealth, instead of 
being diminished by this means, is much increased. 
From experience, I can testify that liberality to the 
Lord is one of the most effectual means of making 
one rich. " There is that scattereth, and yet in- 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



19 



crcaseth, and there is that withholdeth more than is 
meet, and it tendeth to poverty." 

Reflecting upon my own external conduct, I la- 
ment that I have been so deficient in effectual fervent 
prayer for my congregation and for the church of 
God. " Except the Lord keep the city, the watch- 
men waketh in vain." 

I lament that my discourses, and conversation in 
my family and with others, have not been more spi- 
ritual. A sense of sinful weakness, and unskilfulness 
in pushing religious discourse, have made me averse 
from keeping much company ; and when at any time 
I have been in company with others, without some 
serious discourse hath been introduced, I have left 
them with grief and shame. It is a divine command, 
" Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned 
with salt." 

I lament that I have not attended more frequently, 
societies for prayer and spiritual conference ; and 
that I have not been more diligent in catechising and 
exhorting children in my congregation. I am per- 
suaded that these exercises are some of the best means 
which ministers can use for promoting the welfare 
of souls ; and it would be happy for the church, if 
the zeal and care of teachers were chiefly manifested 
about things of this nature. 

But the mercies which I have received, and the 
sins which I have committed, are innumerable. God 
has been doing, I had almost said, all that he can, to 
save, smile on, and favour me ; and I have been 



20 



LIFE AND RE3IAINS OF 



acting to my uttermost, in opposing and dishonouring 
him. And now, after all that he has performed, 
and after all that I have professed, I am good for 
nothing ; neither to teach nor learn ; neither to live 
nor die; but am, both in heart and in life, evil, only 
evil, superabundantly evil, unto this day. 



FORM OF A SOLEMN DEDICATION TO THE LORD, FOUND 
A3IONG 3IR. BROWN'S PAPERS. 

Haddington, June 23, 1784. 

Lord, I am now entering on the thirty-fourth year 
of my ministry ; an amazing instance of sovereign 
mercy and patience to a cumberer of the ground ! 
How strange, that thou shouldest have, fof more 
than sixty years, continued striving to exercise mercy 
and loving-kindness upon a wretch that hath all along 
spoken and done all the evil that I could ; nor ever 
would yield, but when the almighty influence of free 
grace put it out of my power to oppose it. Lord, 
how often have I vowed, but never grown better ; 
confessed, but never amended ! Often thou hast 
challenged and corrected me, and yet I have gone on 
frowardly in the way of my heart. As an evil man 
and seducer, I have grown worse and worse. But 
where should a sinner flee, but to the Saviour ? 
Lord, all refuge faileth me ; no man can help my 
soul. Nothing will do for me but an uncommon 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



21 



stretch of thy almighty grace. To thee, O Jesus, I 
give up myself, as a foolish, guilty, polluted, and en- 
slaved sinner ; and I hereby solemnly take thee as 
mine, as made of God to me wisdom, righteousness, 
sanctification, and redemption ! I give up myself, as 
a poor, ignorant, careless, and wicked creature, who 
hath been ever learning, and yet never able to come 
to the knowledge of the truth, to thee, O Lord, that 
thou may est bestow gifts on the rebellious, and exalt 
thy grace, in showing kindness to the unworthy, 
O Saviour, come down and do something for me be- 
fore I die. I give up myself and family, wife, 
children, and servant, to thee, encouraged by thy 
promises ; Gen. xvii. 7 ; Jer. xxxi. 1 ; Isa. xliv. 3 — . 
lix. 21. I commit my poor, weak, withered congre- 
gation, deprived by death of its pillars, that thou 
mayest strengthen, refresh, and govern it. I com- 
mit all my students unto thee, that thou, O Lord, 
mayest train them up for the ministry. May never 
one of them be so unfit as I have been ! Lord, I 
desire to take hold of thy new covenant, well or- 
dered in all things, and sure. This is all my salva- 
tion, and all my desire. (Subscribed) 

John Brown. 



LETTERS. 



LETTER I. 

Dear Sir, — Yours I received. O that we had 
learned Christ to any purpose ! It were well to have 
learned but as much of him as to convince us that 
he is far above our comprehension. There is no- 
thing in creation, but the more acquaintance we have 
with it, the more spots and blemishes we shall see ; 
but Christ, the more he is seen and known, he ap- 
pears so much the more comely. Created things 
answer but a few wants, and that for a little time ; 
but Jesus answers all wants at once, and makes up 
one for ever and ever. It is truly sad, that silly 
trifles should be able to call off our hearts from him! 
O, it is sad, that when Christ is infinitely better than 
all, he should be chiefly slighted by us ! And 
wretched is our ingratitude, that, when Christ has 
done so much for us, we should be unwilling to do 
any thing for him ! O what a mercy that he deals 
not with us as we deserve ! As all lawful business is 
full of Christ, and of eternal things, yours is so in a 
peculiar manner.* Your asking of persons what 

* His correspondent being a merchant. 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



23 



they desire, as they come in, is an emblem of Christ's 
saying, 41 What will ye that I should do unto you? 
Buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest 
be rich." Your arranging of goods on shelves, puts 
me in mind of Christ's arranging his blessings, in the 
ordinances of the gospel and in the various promises. 
Often you let people see things, and they refuse to 
buy them at all ; or, at least, to take them at your 
price — a sad emblem of our conduct before Christ ! 
Ah, how often do we come to his ordinances, and 
buy nothing ; view his covenant in a careless manner, 
and refuse to have any of his special benefits ! We 
reason with Christ, not to have his blessings cheaper 
— that cannot be — but to have them at a higher rate 
than that at which Christ offers them. Is not this 
madness with a witness ? We can give nothing, 
and yet will bid something, when Christ tells us that 
he will not take any thing as his price. O, cursed 
is our contempt of Jesus, when we tempt him with 
any of our things ! Perhaps you sometimes exchange 
goods ; but no exchange is like that which Christ 
made ; he took our curse, and gives us his blessing ; 
he took our sorrows, and gives us his joys ; he takes 
our old heart, which is little worth, and gives us a 
new one ; he takes away our filthy garments, and 
clothes us with change of raiment ! You get your 
own share of slack trade on some days ; but if you 
could learn the way of trading quick with Christ ; 
if bad debtors make you rightly consider what you 



24 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



owe to Christ, and how poorly you pay ; you might 
make the worst part of your business the most 
profitable. Yours, &c. 



LETTER II. 

Dear Sir, — I desire to sympathize with you in 
your affliction. Experience hath made me to know 
how hard it is to part with a pleasant child. God 
hath, in this dispensation, showed you that u Vanity 
of vanities, all that cometh is vanity." There is no 
certain source of pleasure besides Christ. When 
we come into life, we are much in the same situation 
as you were when you got home — we find created 
joys on their death-bed. May we put as little trust 
in them as they deserve! In this stroke, I am sure, 
God is righteous. Think if your tender little one 
did not twine about your heart, and draw it off from 
God. Is it not then just that God abolish the idol ? 
But methinks this stroke is not only just, but it is 
good also, both to you and to your child. What 
you have met with on the occasion, appears to me 
an evidence, so far as I can see into the secrets of 
Jehovah, that God has at once taken your child to 
himself, and, in some measure, taken your child's 
room in your heart. Now, if, when young ones are 
in such danger here, God hath taken your daughter 
to educate her in heaven ; if she is gone to Christ, 
your best friend above, as I think, from your con- 



The rev. john brown. 25 

cern about her, appears manifest — is she any worse? 
rather, is she not far better ? Do you well to be 
angry that God has dealt so graciously with her ? 
Learn, from the death of children, to pant for the 
everliving God ; to consider them, and all created 
things, as mere loans, which God may recall at plea- 
sure. Esteem nothing but Christ your proper pos- 
session ; all things beside him give us the slip. As 
to the question which you propose, 14 How may one 
know that afflictions are sanctified ?" I would an- 
swer, if they tend to humble us ; if they open our 
eyes to discern a vanity in creatures ; if they fill us 
with resentment at our sin ; if, under them, we 
would rather choose to get rid of corruption than 
of trouble ; if we would fain acquiesce in God's 
will, even in smiting us, and are grieved for the rising 
of our hearts against him — these are a good sign that 
our troubles are sanctified. But, in order to put all 
out of doubt, even now try to believe, and lay the 
burden of your whole salvation upon Jesus, as bearing 
your griefs and carrying your sorrows ; and then 
I am sure your trouble will be sanctified. Fear not, 
only believe. As to the note at the service of the 
table, of which you spake, it was to this purpose— 
u When the savages of Louisiana were going to 
murder Lascde, or his Italian friend, he told them, 
that such was his regard for them, that he had them 
all in his heart ; and would they murder a man who 
loved them so well ? At the same time, applying a 
small looking-glass to his breast, he desired them to 
c 2 



26 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



look and see if it was not so. It is said that the 
poor savages, observing their own image, had their 
barbarity melted into the most tender compassion 
and love ; they would not for a world have hurt 
him, or suffered him to be hurt by others. Now, 
believing communicants, Jesus bids you look into 
his heart, and see yourselves there. c Behold,' saith 
he, c you were on my heart from eternity, when I 
undertook for you ; then my delights were with the 
sons of men, and I rejoiced in the habitable parts of 
the earth! Lo, you were in my heart on Calvary, 
when it was melted as the wax with the wrath due 
to your crimes ! Behold, how you are in my heart, 
now that I am in the midst of the throne, while I 
appear in the presence of God for you, and prepare 
a place for you !' Will you any more, by sin, murder 
a man — a God-man, that had, that has, and that will 
ever have, you in his heart ? Melts not thy soul into 
tender affection to him ? Startles not thy heart at 
the thought of imbruing thy hands in his blood ? 
Do not all thy inward powers cry out, Was I, a very 
Beelzebub, a prince of devils, in Jesus' heart from 
everlasting, and shall I be there to everlasting ? 
Were all his thoughts, thoughts of love concerning 
me ? Was all his heart inflamed with love to me, 
and all inflamed with wrath on my account ? What 
shall I render to him for his kindness ? Doth the 
eternal God give me full and everlasting room in his 
blessed heart ? And shall not I give him some, give 
him all the room in that stye, that hidden hell of 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



27 



mine? Come in, thou blessed of the Lord; why 
standest thou without ? Fill the house, my heart, 
with thy glory. Let my tongue cleave to the roof 
of my mouth, if I forget thee, O Jesus, and do not 
prefer thee to my chiefest joy ! O Jesus, go up 
higher and higher ; and ye created enjoyments, come 
down, and sit below his footstool." I am Yours, &c. 



LETTER III. 

Sir, — Despise not the day of small things, I might 
say of good things. When you consider yourself as 
one of the first-rate deservers of damnation, how 
may you admire the great kindness of God ! Com- 
pare your mercies, your visits, not with the wishes 
of your soul, but with the deserts of your sin ; and 
then a little one will appear as a thousand, and a 
small one as a strong nation of astonishing favours. 
Though we should get but one smile of his coun- 
tenance, and hear but one word from his blessed lips 
in a whole year, what a mercy to those who deserve, 
all the year throughout, to be tormented in the 
lowest hell ! Bless God for any transient blinks you 
enjoy ; but let the unchangeable Saviour be the only 
confidence of your soul. Frames, as well as heart 
and flesh, do fail ; but He will never fail you, nor 
forsake you. You ask me concerning marks of fel- 
lowship with our Lord Jesus. Alas, that I should 



28 



LIFE AND REMAINS OV 



know so little about that happiness ! How easy to 
talk about spiritual things when we feel not their 
power ; but, without doubt, our communion with 
Christ is real, if it make us to lie in the dust before 
him, and cause us to loathe and abhor ourselves be- 
fore him; Tsa. vi. 5, 44 Then said I, woe is me, 
for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among 
a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the 
king — the Lord of hosts." O, what a kindly, a 
heart-humbling, a soul-shaming, and paining view of 
sin — particularly of inward enmity and unbelief — 
does the smile, the voice of God produce! We can- 
not look on a God of redeeming love, without think- 
ing ourselves unclean, outrageous beasts and devils. 
Psalm lxxiii. 20, 21; Rom. vii. 24. Real com- 
munion, too, melts our hearts with love to God, and 
to his laws, ordinances, and people ; and renders us 
vexed and ashamed that we cannot love him to pur- 
pose. 1 Cor. v. 14. But it is one thing to know these 
matters in our head, and another thing to feel them in 
our heart. Ah, how many of us called Christians are 
led like beasts, by the head; and how few, like saints 
indeed, are led by the heart ! O to hear his heart- 
drawing voice ! O to see his soul-attracting coun- 
tenance ! O to be fast bound by the cords of his 
love, so that neither strong lusts within us, nor nu- 
merous devils, nor an evil world, may ever be able 
to loose us ! The Christian Journal, I suppose, 
is now published. You may send for what copies 
you need ; and O pray for its doing some good ! 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



29 



No doubt it will be the saviour of death, and a 
stumbling-block, to some carnaTand profane readers ; 
but, if Jesus render it useful to the serious, it is my 
business to bear patiently the scoffs of the profane. 
Wishing that the eternal God, the dying Redeemer, 
may be your all and in all, and the all and in all of 
your seed, I am, Yours, &c. 



LETTER IV. 

Dear Sir,— I received yours: — I would desire to 
join with you in prayer for your children. May God 
write on the afflicted little one his new name. I am 
glad to find that you receive so many of the tender 
mercies of God in your afflictions. If you or I get 
a crumb from the Master's table, w T hat a wonder of 
sovereign mercy it is! It is quite undeserved, nay, 
contrary to all desert. Often it is not desired, or 
rather, is half forbidden. What else are our careless 
prayers, and our careless waiting on ordinances, but 
a courting the denial of mercies ! However, endless 
praise be to our liberal Jesus, who, seeing our needs, 
doth grant unto us his gracious presence ! His going 
forth is prepared as the morning ; and as the rain 
that waiteth not for a man, and tarrieth not for the 
sons of men. At our last sacramental solemnity, I 
thought that some drops of Heaven's dew fell on my 
soul. The views of that unmatched Jesus, as my all 



30 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



and in all, suiting all my sins, and all my troubles, 
and all that I could desire, and infinitely more than 
I could ask or think, were delightful to my heart. 
But, alas, such is my worse than infernal temper, 
that when at any time he begins to touch my heart, 
or to take me into his embrace, I struggle to get from 
him ; and scarcely are a few minutes past, when I am 
often seven fold more like a child of hell than before 
in respect of carnality, heart- wanderings, and the 
like ! O that cursed heart of unbelief, that will for- 
sake our own mercy ! 

Truly, Sir, when I compare the poor commenda- 
tions, which I give to the unmatched Immanuel, with 
the conduct of my soul, I am apt to say, O what a 
dreadful compassing of God with lies and deceit is 
found in me ! May the Lord have mercy on an in- 
ward blasphemer. Dear friend, pity me, and cry 
mightily to God in my behalf. It is shocking, if you 
knew it, to think what difference there is between 
my sermons and my own inward life. Oh, what as- 
tonishing grace and blood that must be, which can 
save such devils ! I should say, such sinners worse 
than devils! Yet, O to be distinguished debtors to 
free grace ! O happy, happy, to be drowned for ever 
in debt to redeeming love ! Oh, to be set up here, 
and at the last day, and for ever, in the most public 
place, as bankrupts that owed infinitely much to 
divine kindness, and that could not pay a farthing! 
Yours, &c. 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



SI 



LETTER V. 

Dear Friends, — The repeated strokes on your little 
babes are very affecting : bat the words with which 
Jesus entertains your souls, give you reason to hope 
that the children are removed to the immediate care 
of their better and more proper parents, Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost. Now, view the matter in what 
light you will, you may see that the Lord is doing all 
things well. God had a better right to your children 
than you ; why then should you grudge, or think 
that you are ill used, when he takes back his loan? 
he can manage them better than you. It no doubt 
delighted you to see them walking about your hands, 
or dandled on your knees ; but how much better is 
it to walk about the hands of a redeeming God, and 
to enjoy him as their eternal all, and in all ! 

We cannot conceive the pleasure of Jehovah, in 
seeing the travail of a Redeemer's soul ; his children 
sitting like so many olive plants around his table ! It 
was pleasant to hear a Saviour say, " Suffer little 
children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for 
of such is the kingdom of God and to see him take 
them up in his arms and bless them ; but how much 
more pleasant to see him seat them with himself upon 
his throne, and in his divine manner say, 44 Behold I 
and the children whom thou hast given me !" Me- 
thinks your babes, by their early death, are, as it 
were, addressing you, tc O, father and mother, make 



32 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



haste and come away — we are not lost, but gone be- 
fore ! O, do not reflect on the Lord, — he does all 
things well ; all his ways are mercy and truth." Be- 
ware of thinking that all these things are against you. 
The Lord's right way is in the sea, and his path in 
the mighty waters. Though to you he is covering 
himself with a cloud of dark providences, yet never 
fear, the rainbow of the new covenant is round about 
his head. God often loves them in a peculiar man- 
ner, whom he peculiarly afflicts. It is really strange, 
that we are all so fond of having the mark of bas- 
tards, viz., freedom from chastisements! but what 
better than opposition to God, can we think, will 
proceed from our carnal minds ? I confess it is not 
to our honour that we need so many trials; but, O, 
it is kind in God, either to draw or to drive us to 
himself! O friends, fill your bosom with promises, 
since your babes are taken from you ; and, when you 
lie down without your children, take promises to lie 
down and rise up with you. That single promise, 
Isa. xli. 10 ; or that, Isa. xliii. 1 — 3, is sweeter than 
thousands of the sweetest babes. Methinks God is 
saying to you, 66 Parents, am I not better to you than 
ten sons?" Let your hearts reply, 44 Yes, Lord, 
thou art better than a thousand. - Whom have I in 
heaven but thee, and there is none upon the earth 
whom I desire besides thee.'" God's promises are 
good bread for mourners ; and his words are re- 
freshing to a sorrowful heart. Even now he is say- 
ing to you, u Eat, O friends ; drink, yea, drink 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



$3 



abundantly, O beloved !" Many a lesson we have 
got, that all besides Christ is " vanity of vanities;" 
and that time is short, and eternity long and impor- 
tant ; but, ah! we are dull scholars, who scarce 
learn a letter in a whole year ! Since God by trou- 
bles lets us know that it is night, and prevents us 
from sound sleep, let us, instead of keeping dead 
babes in our thoughts, think, when will it be mor- 
ning ? when will the Lamb in the midst of the throne 
feed us, and lead us by fountains of living waters? 
and when shall God himself wipe away all tears from 
our eyes ? May God, that comforteth the cast down, 
comfort you by the coming of Jesus. Yours, &c. 



LETTER VI. 

Dear — — — — Having heard some days ago of 
your illness, I have transmitted to you the few fol- 
lowing hints: — 1. Let your days of trouble be days 
of trying your own heart and way before God ; and 
O, let your search be earnest, as you know not how 
soon death, and an appearance before the tribunal of 
Christ, may actually take place. Mind that it is not 
the having somewhat of a profession, but the having 
our soul united to Jesus Christ, and our being re- 
newed in the spirit of our minds, that will stand as 
real religion before God. 2. Think how much bet- 
ter it will be, to discern the mistakes relative to your 

D 



34 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



state, or relative to your thoughts, words, and ac- 
tions, now when sovereign grace may rectify them, 
than to have them discovered when it is too late to 
obtain a happy change. 3. Ponder under what view 
Christ answers your case. He is made of God to 
you wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and re- 
demption ; and so is answerable to you as foolish and 
ignorant, naked and guilty, corrupted and denied, 
imprisoned and in bondage. Think, I beseech you, 
how he suits you in his new covenant characters, and 
how great is your need of him in all these views. 
4. Ponder carefully, that Christ, and all the fulness 
of God, is given unto you in the free promises and 
offers of the gospel, such as, Prov. i. 22, 23 ; ix. 4, 
5; xxiii. 26; Isa. xlv. 22, 24; xlvi. 12, 13; lv. 1, 
7 ; xlii. 6, 7 ; John vi. 37 ; 2 Cor. v. 18, 21 ; Acts 
xiii. 26 ; Rev. xxii. 17. See that you do not merely 
look over and think over the scriptures, but try and 
apply them to your heart. 5. Rather think too ill 
of your soul's case before God, and of your conduct 
in life, than too well. If they cannot stand the trial 
of such texts as these, Matt. v. 3, 8; Rom. viii. 2; 
vii. 14, 15, 24; 2 Cor. v. 17; Gal. iv. 19; vi. 15; 
1 Pet. ii. 7; John xxi. 17; all is naught. 6. Consider 
what pains God hath been at with you. His language 
in this rod is plainly, O that they were wise, that they 
understood this ! And see also John v. 6 ; Matt, 
xx. 32; Ezek. xxxiii. 11. Finally, Mind that all 
the instructions parents and others have given you, 
all the offers of salvation which have been made to 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



35 



you. and all the strivings of the Spirit with your 
conscience, will bear witness against you, if you make 
not the receiving of Christ and walking in him your 
most earnest study. " Now," my dear friend, " now 
is the accepted time, now is the day of your salva- 
tion." O harden not your heart, but fly for refuge 
to Jesus as the hope set before you. May the Lord 
himself persuade you. Yours, &c. 



LETTER VII. 

Dear Sister in Affliction, — I am essaying to weep 
with you that weep. Yet let me beseech you that 
you do not mourn as those that have no hope. 
" The Lord liveth, and blessed be our rock, and let 
the God of our salvation be exalted !" Fret not at 
the inexpressible kindness of God to your husband. 
We have no reason to doubt but that he is gone to 
Jesus, which is far better. No more dim eyes nor 
feeble limbs now ! Nor will it be long, I suppose, 
till he and you meet, where ye shall for ever love 
one another, and rejoice over one another, as 
the ransomed of the Lord. There the kind re- 
lations of husband and wife will be quite swal- 
lowed up in the great relations to God and the 
Lamb. The Lord hath now an opportunity of 
giving you an experience of himself, as the widow's 
husband, the widow's judge, and the widow's stay. 
Stir up your soul, and cry, u I know that my Re- 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



deemer liveth;" 41 my Lord and my God;" yea, 
mine own God is be — I hope. Jer. xlix. 21 , 14 Leave 
thy fatherless children upon me, I will preserve them 
alive, and let your widows trust in me," will be the 
security for you and yours. Fear not, only believe. 
Permit me to say a few things to the children. Re- 
member your father hath often and solemnly devoted 
you to the Lord. O, for the Lord's sake, never 
give yourselves to Satan or to your own lusts! If 
you cast yourselves on the God of your father, I 
dare foretell that God will take care of you all, both 
of soul and of body. I myself was thrown to the 
wide world when young, and yet to this moment I 
never was in a strait as to outward things, nor as to 
inward things either, unless when my own unbe- 
lieving heart was the cause. Your friends will, no 
doubt, point out what course you should take as to 
earthly business ; but let me recommend to your 
consideration these scriptures; Jer. xxxiv. 19 ; xlix. 
11 ; Psalm lxix. 5 ; cxlvi. 9 ; xxxiv. 3, 20 ; xxxvii. 
3, 5 ; Isa. xli. 10, 17, 18; xliii. 2 ; Matt. vi. 33 ; 
Phil. iv. 19. I beseech — nay, charge — every one of 
you to read these scriptures, and to lay them up in 
your minds. Perhaps your father's illness disqua- 
lified him for giving you dying advice ; if so, take 
these scriptures instead of them. O, if the grace of 
God w r ould enable you to live according to the mani- 
fold directions which you have received ! See that 
you study to live, before God and men, in such a 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



37 



manner as that you wilf be an honour to your 
deceased father, and a comfort to your distressed 
mother. Yours, &c. 



LETTER VIIL* 

Dear , — When I get an opportunity, I 

have some thoughts of making a trial of the medi- 
cine which you mention, though my hopes of being 
better by it are not very high. My life and health 
seem now to pass like a declining shadow, nor dare 
I repine at the matter. God hath, in some measure, 
satisfied me with old age ; I would therefore be 
longing to see his salvation. I observe several things 
relative to my family, which urge my carnal heart to 
wish continuance ; but my death can make no vacancy 
in my family, and far less in the church, which Jesus 
cannot easily fill up. What I desire is, to have the 
presence of God in my trouble, and to be enabled to 
act for his glory. I can hardly bear the thought of 
being consigned to be an useless weight on his earth. 
But I must not quarrel at his disposal ; — he cannot but 
do right, nor would I wish to attempt making straight 
what he has made crooked. Redemption through 
his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to 
the riches of his grace, is what I ever desire to enjoy ; 
and I wish to leave the circumstances of my depar- 

* This and the three following Letters were written by the author to 
his relations, when he was in distress. 

D 2 



38 



LIFE AND REMAINS 0£ 



ture to his high sovereign will. If grace reigns 
through Jesus 1 righteousness to eternal life to me and 
mine, I ask no more. I believe that I shall never be 
perfectly well, till I be with the Lamb in the midst 
of the throne. In the mean time I earnestly desire 
to die as a wax taper, sending forth a sweet smell of 
Him whose garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and 
cassia. I am yours, &c. 



LETTER IX. 

Dear , — I am at present in a weak and lan- 
guishing condition ; but, as it is the doing of the 
Lord, I desire to be resigned ; and would gladly be 
content, whether death or recovery be the issue. 
Indeed, the desire of my heart is, that, if it be his 
will, I should depart and be with Christ, which is 
far better than being in this sinful world. But it 
would be improper for me, to set up my ignorant and 
corrupt will, as a rule to the Most High. I wish to 
be at entire and cordial resignation to his will, who 
hath so graciously performed all things for me. Let 
him recover, or let him kill me, as is most for his 
glory, I hope that it shall be in infinite love to my 
soul. I desire to take all kindly from his hand, and 
I hope that he will sweeten all with believing views 
of his everlasting love to me. To leave a multitude 
of kind relations, hearers and neighbours, on earth, 
is an easy matter, in order to depart and to be with 
Jesus Christ for ever. When I write, perhaps my 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



39 



last letter to you, 0 that I could commend him who 
is white and ruddy ; the chiefest among ten thousand, 
and altogether lovely! Rather, O that the Holy 
Ghost would enable you and your children to come 
and see him ! I am sure that is a pleasant and enrich- 
ing sight. May never one of you get rest in your 
minds till you obtain such a blessed discovery ! I 
give it, perhaps as my last words to you and your 
children, that there is none like Christ, there is none 
like Christ, there is none like Christ ! 

Yours, affectionately, &c. 



LETTER X. 

Dear , — My weakness still continues, nor, 

indeed, is my mind anxious about this, but a Christ- 
glorifying death, and a being for ever with the Lord. 
My concern, too, is, that all my relations should have 
my place on earth delightfully supplied by the know- 
ledge, care, and fellowship of Jesus Christ ; even he 
whom, notwithstanding all my present and now long* 
continued carelessness and wickedness, I still hold 
to be Jesus Christ my Lord. O, could my soul enter 
into the full meaning of these words as I would wish ! 
But I hope that I shall be allowed this attainment 
by and bye. Already my poor soul, in a manner ho- 
vering between time and eternity, cries, ;t None like 
Christ ! and 44 None but Christ for me /" And may 
I, and all my relations and friends, be his henceforth 



40 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



and for ever ! It is do small comfort to have my re- 
lations on earth so kind and agreeable to me ; but 
my superlative desire, I think, is to be with Jesus 
and his ransomed millions above. That such a sin- 
ner, and originally such a mean sinner, should be 
kindly treated by so many brethren and friends, doth 
and may amaze me ; but O, how sweetly doth Jesus 
and his Spirit exceed them all ! Now I in some sweet 
measure feel and see, that there is no friendship like 
that of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This week 
my bodily appetite is no better ; but little matter, if 
God would enable me to drink up a river of his re- 
deeming blood, and to feed full on Jesus' flesh — on 
all the fulness of God. At the meeting of the Synod, 
let my weakness be represented to them ; and, if they 
judge that it has disqualified me for teaching the stu- 
dents, I heartily agree to be laid aside from this work, 
and that one more fit should be chosen. It is Jesus 
Christ, whom I wish to have exalted ; and the best 
means for saving sinners, I wish to take place. I 
hope the brethren will take care to supply my con- 
gregation with sermons, as want of this would sink 
my spirits. I have been but a dry tree myself among 
them; and O, it would rejoice my heart to hear of 
Jesus' power being felt, and his glory seen by the 
ministry of my brethren helping me ! I do not wish 
to be a burden to them : and, if providence bring me 
back into any measure of strength, I shall inform the 
supplier. The longer I live, I see myself the less 
worthy of being regarded by anybody. Wishing all 
the blessings of time and eternity on your family, and 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



41 



that the Lord may render you and your brother, and 
all my pupils, more faithful, diligent, and successful 
in the ministry than I have been, 

I remain Yours, &c. 



LETTER XL 

Dear — I am, and have been since you went 

away, much as when you saw me. Still weak, but 
desiring to wait for the salvation of God, which I 
hope will make me strong in his due time : his afflic- 
ing hand lies very mercifully on me : how pleasantly 
his glorifying hand, in a short time, will lie on me, 
I with humility wish to know, as soon as it is for his 
glory, and my own and others' good. O study early 
fellowship with Christ. It is sweet in days of trouble 
to look back to this. I hope that you will not grudge 
to preach for me another Sabbath ; and may that 
sweet Jesus Christ, and his Spirit, give you and me 
many days of sweet fellowship with them, which I 
am sure and glad that they can give us. My allowed 
inclination is to serve the Lord on earth, or to praise 
him in heaven, as he thinks most for his honour, for 
a time ; though, saving his will, I would cheerfully 
prefer the last. O, to be with Christ in heaven, ap- 
pears to me a double, a triple heaven for such a sin- 
ner ! This, with my kind compliments to all my 
brethren about you. 

Yours, affectionately, &c. 



TRACTS, 



I. — Meditation upon Christ's being made of God to 
us Sanctification. 

Of his own infinite grace, God formed a perfectly 
holy manhood to his eternal Son, and in it a seed of 
holiness to millions unnumbered of the human race. 
In him he re-planted humanity, a choice vine, wholly 
a right seed, that could never become a degenerate 
plant of a strange vine ; he made the root holy, that 
so also might be the branches. Thrice marvellous 
work ! Sacrifices and offerings God would not, but 
a body he prepared for his Son. The branch out of 
Jesse's root was formed, excellent and comely; that 
holy thing, a Sanctifier ; one with the sanctified ! 
The Spirit of the Lord rested on, and was given him 
without measure. 

God made his Son in our own nature, under the 
law, the immutable standard of holiness in heart or 
life. He exacted of him the whole requirements 
thereof, as it is a broken covenant ; and held him 
under it, till by enduring its whole penalty, and ful- 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



48 



filling its precepts, he had magnified it and made it 
honourable. This law was in his heart ; he took 
delight to do thy will, O God ! It became him to 
fulfil all righteousness, and to suffer ere he entered 
into glory. Thrice noble and efficacious foundation 
of true holiness in us ! 1. Hereby the curse of the 
law, which is the strength of sin, which, as with al- 
mighty force, consigns over the subjected transgres- 
sors to spiritual death in trespasses and sins, to the 
dominion of sin, as a leading part of just punishment, 
is removed. Thus the gulph fixed between God and 
us is rendered passable. Being redeemed from the 
curse, dead to the law by the body of Christ, sin can- 
not have dominion over us; but, being made free 
from the law of sin and death, we bring forth fruit 
unto God. 2. Hereby the legal favour of God was 
procured, his real favour vented, and established 
upon a legal footing. God being well-pleased for 
his righteousnes' sake, which magnified the law and 
made it honourable, we are reconciled unto God by 
his death, that we may be saved by his life. Though 
once we were without God and without hope, and 
far off, we are brought nigh by his blood, that our 
enmity may be slain. God, who reconciled the world 
to himself, must be the Lord our God that sanctifieth 
us. Being our friend, our God of peace, he must 
rid us of sin, our principal plague, and bestow upon 
us holiness, our chief happiness ; must sanctify us 
wholly, soul, body, and spirit. Being our reconciled 
God of peace, his wisdom must devise how to keep 



14 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



and deliver us from temptation ; his power must be 
perfected in our weakness, must subdue our iniquities, 
and work in us to will and to do of his good pleasure ; 
his holiness must make us after its own image, its 
own likeness ; his justice must bestow upon us the 
spiritual life purchased for us by Christ our surety ; 
his goodness must do us good, make all things in us 
very good, and supply all our wants ; his truth must 
fulfil every exceeding great and precious promise, 
whereby we are made partakers of the divine nature, 
having- escaped the corruption that is in the world 
through lust. If this reconciled God of peace be our 
father, we must be begotten again into a conformity 
with him, and be made to perfect holiness in his fear. 
If he is our husband, he must adorn us for the eter- 
nal feast. If he is our portion, he must fill all things. 
If he is our master, he must command us of his 
household to walk in the way of the Lord, he must 
provide for and rule well his family. If he is our 
physician, he must heal our diseases, see our froward 
ways, and heal them. 3. Hereby enough of com- 
municable grace was purchased ; redemption from 
all iniquity ; zeal of good works ; redemption from 
a vain conversation ; cleansing till one become with- 
out spot or wrinkle, or any such thing ; possession 
of life, and that more abundantly ; sanctification of 
the people. 4. Hereby the broken law which gen- 
der eth to bondage, the galling yoke, which neither 
wo nor our fathers could bear, is deprived of all its 
wrathful sanction ; and nothing is left for those under 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



45 



the law to Christ, but kind chastisements for their 
profit, to make them partakers of God's holiness. 
It is transformed into a perfect law of liberty, obedi- 
ence to which founds no proper title to eternal hap- 
piness. It saith not, The man that doeth these things 
shall live in them ; but, being delivered out of the 
hands of your enemies, serve God in holiness and 
righteousness before him all the days of your life. 
Having these promises, dearly beloved, cleanse your- 
selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit. Having 
these hopes of the heavenly kingdom, as heirs of God 
and joint heirs with Christ, purify yourselves as God 
is pure. Since he is the Lord your God, have no 
other gods before him, &c. Walk in love, as Christ 
hath loved you. Be perfect, as your Father who is 
in heaven is perfect. In this new form it doth not 
revive sin, nor is the strength of it ; but, inlaid in 
the promise, and impressed on the heart, it enstamps 
holiness on the soul, and creates purity and truth in 
the inward part. 5. In Jesus' fulfilment of the law 
is exhibited the most suitable, the most perfect and 
engaging pattern of universal holiness. He therein 
left us an example, that we should walk in his steps ; 
that we might learn of him and follow him. How 
honourable this ! Being in the form of God, he took 
upon him the form of a servant, and was obedient 
unto death. How perfect ! He did always the 
things that pleased his Father. How suitable ! He 
was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without 
sin. How engaging ! We love him because he first 

E 



46 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



loved us. We walk in love, as Christ hath loved us, 
and given himself for us. It is at once the pattern 
of our brother, our husband, our Saviour, and our 
God. 6. In his fulfilment of the law, the motives 
of holiness are rendered infinitely numerous, plain, 
and determining. The inexpressible importance of 
holiness is marked in the service, the death of God, 
The purity and authority of the moral law is mani- 
fested in his magnifying and making it honourable. 
In his being made sin for us, the horrid nature of 
sin, as the murder of a God of infinite grace,— the 
murder of a God in our nature, — is displayed, more 
than is done in either, law, hell, or human heart. 
How constraining to gratitude is the giving, the 
dying love of God ! in it we have strength and reward 
secured. We shall be strengthened in the Lord, and 
walk up and down in his name. Our labour shall 
not be in vain in the Lord. 

The foundation of holiness thus laid, all the infi- 
nite stores of purchased grace were lodged in Christ, 
that they might be near, and sure, and sweet, to pol- 
luted men. He received gifts for men. In him it 
pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell ; 
that so, holding the head, the whole members might 
grow up with the increase of God. He is full of 
grace and truth, that out of his fulness we may re- 
ceive grace for grace ; and that God may supply all 
our wants out of his riches ; and wash off all our 
stains in him, who is the fountain opened — the foun- 
tain of gardens—well of living waters, and streams 



THE RET. JOHN BROWN. 47 

from Lebanon. Faithful to God that appointed 
him, he must bestow these gifts, this grace, upon 
men ; himself and his holy angels have no use for it. 

In respect of meditorial person, office, and relation, 
Christ is so fashioned, that there can be no spiritual 
connexion with him which is not of a sanctifying 
nature. If he is a Redeemer, it is from all iniquity. 
If he comes to us, it is to turn away ungodliness. 
If he is a Saviour, it is from sins ; he is manifested 
to destroy the works of the devil. If he is a pro- 
phet, it is to teach to profit; to teach to deny un- 
godliness and worldly ' lusts, and to live soberly, 
righteously, and godly in this present world. If he 
is a sacrifice, it is to purge our conscience from dead 
works to serve the living God ; it is to finish trans- 
gressions and make an end of sin, and sanctify the 
people. If he is an advocate, it is to plead their 
sanctification, and to send down the Holy Spirit — to 
cause us to walk in his statutes, and to keep his judg- 
ments. If he is a king, it is to command deliver- 
ances for Jacob ; slay our enmity, and subdue our 
iniquity ; and make his grace sufficient for us, and 
his strength perfect in our weakness. If he is our 
Father, it is to beget us again to a lively and purify- 
ing hope, and to make his daughter all glorious with- 
in. If he is a head, it is to make us grow with the 
increase of God — to make us grow in peace. If he 
is a husband, he makes perfect through his comeli- 
ness put upon us. If he is a shepherd, he must lead 
in paths of righteousness. If he is a leader, he must 



48 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



guide in a path that is right. If he is a way, it is a 
way of holiness. If he is a captain, we must be 
strong in the Lord to wrestle with spiritual wicked- 
ness, and abstain from fleshly lusts that war against 
the soul: they that are his soldiers are new creatures, 
who have crucified the flesh with its affections and 
lusts. If he is God's unspeakable gift, he must 
make room for God in our soul. If he is heard, we 
are made clean through his word, sanctified through 
his truth. If he is beheld, beholding as in a glass 
the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same 
image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the 
Lord. If he is touched, healing virtue proceeds 
from him. 

In the manifestation of Christ in the gospel, God 
c?a'ries the external means of sanctification to the 
highest. An attention to the facts and mysteries re- 
lative to him discovers the law, the covenants, the 
nature of God, the evil and danger of sin, the beauty, 
necessity, and usefulness of holiness to the highest ; 
and, in fine, exhibits the strongest motives and most 
excellent means of holiness. 

By the introduction of Christ into our heart, and 
his continued inhabitation and agency therein, our 
sanctification is begun, increased, and perfected. 
By his entrance into our understanding as the light 
of life, sinful blindness and ignorance are expelled, 
and we are made light in the Lord, have the spirit 
of wisdom and understanding in the knowledge of 
him. By his application of himself to our conscience, 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



49 



as Jehovah our righteousness, it is made good — is 
purged from dead works to serve the living God, 
and disposed to promote the end of the command- 
ment, and to avoid offence towards God and towards 
men. By his entrance into our will and affections, 
as the infinitely amiable and gracious gift of God, 
he opens our soul for God, and draws out our heart 
towards him ; — inflames our soul with love, which is 
the fulfilling of the law. 

In these respects let him be made of God sanctifi- 
cation to me. Detested be all the schemes of dig- 
ging holiness out of myself. Let others, with the 
horrors of damnation attending every false step, or 
joys of heaven earned in the servile mode, promote 
their outside, their bastard piety ; let my life of ho- 
liness be by the faith of the Son of God ! Thus, my 
soul, exercise thyself unto godliness, that in grace, 
as well as in glory, Christ may be all and in all. 



II. — A Contrast of the Purchase and Application of 
'Redemption, 

Redemption, thou eternal excellency, thou joy of 
many generations — return, return, that I may look 
upon thee! How my heart is amazed, is ravished, 
with the view of what my adored Jesus hath done 
for me in the purchase of redemption, and doth to 
me in the everlasting application of it to my soul, 
e 2 



50 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



There, in the purchase, Jehovah found him out, and 
laid my help upon him who is mighty : here, in the 
application, he is found of me that sought him not. 
There, he struck out my name from my debt-bond, 
—the broken covenant, — sad charter to infinite woe! 
and inserts his own : here, he makes with me an 
everlasting covenant, even the sure mercies of David. 
There, he made himself heir to my deserved threat- 
enings of his Father's indignation: here, he bequeaths 
— he gives to me his exceeding great and precious pro- 
mises of eternal life. There, to be firmly connected 
with my guilt, my woe, he was made a priest with 
an oath : here, that I might have strong consolation, 
he swears that he hath no pleasure in the death of 
the wicked, and that surely blessing he will bless me. 

There, in the purchase of redemption, he, who 
was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery 
to be equal with God, emptied himself of his glory : 
here, in the application of it, he confers upon me an 
exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The Lord 
is my everlasting light, and my God my glory. 
There, he was found in fashion as a man, a Son of 
man : here, he makes me a son — an heir of God, and 
joint heir with Christ. There, he was sent forth in 
the likeness of sinful flesh : here, he makes me a par- 
taker of the divine nature, and changes me into the 
divine image from glory to glory. There, he became 
a worm and no man : here, he renders me equal to 
the angels of God in heaven. There, he, the Son of 
the Father's love, was an out-cast, an exile : here, I, 



the rev. John brown. 



51 



a hateful, distant foe, am, through his blood, brought 
near unto God, even to his seat. There, he bare 
our infirmities — was weary and weak hearted : here, 
he hath a fellow-feeling of our infirmities— is afflicted 
in our afflictions, and perfects his strength in my 
weakness. There, he made himself of noreputation — 
was a reproach of men, and despised of the people: 
here, he gives me a new name, which the mouth of 
the Lord doth name — the ransomed of the Lord ; 
the holy one ; sought out , and not forsaken. There, 
he took upon him the yoke of the broken law ; the 
yoke of my transgressions was wreathed about his 
neck : here, he brings me into the glorious liberty of 
the sons of God : puts on me his yoke, which is easy, 
and his burden, which is light. There, he bore the 
sins of many, he was made sin for us : here, he makes 
me righteous, the righteousness of God in him. 
There, he was condemned, was made a curse for us : 
here, he is made a prince and Saviour, exalted to 
give repentance and remission of sins ; sent to bless 
me in turning me from mine iniquities ; set up to 
be blessings for evermore. There, he was joined 
with thieves — was numbered with transgressors : 
here, he puts me among the children ; joins me with 
thrones and dominions. And truly my fellowship is 
with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 

There, in the purchase of my redemption, he was 
oppressed with ignominious poverty ; had not where 
to lay his head : here, in the application of it, through 
his poverty I become rich ; he gives me his unsearch- 



LIFE ANt> REMAINS OF 



able riches, the goodly heritage of the hosts of na- 
tions ; fills me with all the fulness of God ; gives me 
the Most High for my habitation, my dwelling place 
in all generations. There, for hunger and thirst his 
soul fainted in him : here, he satiates my soul with 
goodness ; gives me his flesh, which is meat indeed, 
and his blood, which is drink indeed ; gives me bread 
of life, living water , an overflowing cup of salvation. 
There, he hid not his face from shame and spitting ; 
had his visage more marred than any man, and his 
form more than the sons of men : here, he makes 
me lift up my face without spot unto God ; makes 
me shine as the sun in the kingdom of my Father. 
There, he was divinely deserted ; his Father forsook 
him, and was far from the words of his roaring : 
here, he lifts on me the light of Jehovah's counte- 
nance, and shall make me like him, by seeing him 
as he is ; for so shall I be for ever with the Lord. 
There, he gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks 
to them that plucked off the hair ; was wounded for 
our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities: 
here, he is the Lord, my God, that healeth rne ; that 
healeth all my diseases, and bindeth up my painful 
wounds ; and by his stripes am I healed. There, 
from the cross, he would not come down and save 
himself: here, from the throne, he comes down to 
love me from the pit of corruption — draw me out of 
many waters — turn me from ungodliness, and save 
me from the lowest hell. There, he wore a crown of 
thorns : here, he gives me a crown of life ; makes 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 53 

me a royal diadem in the hand of my God. There, 
he drank for me the baleful cup of infinite wrath : 
here, he gives me the fountain of life, rivers of plea- 
sure, wine and milk, without money and without 
price ; and makes me drink water out of the wells of 
salvation. There, he was amazed and very heavy, ex- 
ceeding sorrowful, even unto death : here, he makes 
me obtain joy and gladness, go to God mine exceed- 
ing joy, and enter into the joy of my Lord. There, 
he poured out his soul unto death ; travailed in pain 
till he knew not what to say : here, he is formed in 
my heart the hope of glory ; sees in me the travail 
of his soul, and is satisfied. There, he shed his blood 
for me: here, he loves me, and washes me from my 
sins in his blood, and makes me a king and priest 
unto God, even the Father. There, he died for the 
ungodly : here, he hath quickened me, who was dead 
in trespasses and sins ; because he lives, I shall live 
also ; my life is hid with Christ in God ; and when 
he appears I shall appear with him in glory. There, 
he was buried, descended unto the lower parts of the 
earth : here, raised up and alive for evermore, he 
raiseth me up together, and makes me sit together 
with him in heavenly places. 'What melting views 
are these ! How my heart heaves with joy, flames 
with love ! — would burst in praise, if wonder would 
allow! A. B. 



54 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



III. — Reflections of a Soul shut up to Faith. 

Look back, my soul, to the rock from whence thou 
wast he wen. Ponder the manner in which Jehovah 
loved and brought thee from the pit of corruption. 
How the fiery law, with its dread mandates all pointed 
against my crimes, and its tremendous penalty turned 
every way to stop my escape from the graciously in- 
viting God of infinite mercy ! 1 To what numerous, 
to what wretched shifts I betook myself, to shun the 
Redeemer ! By a christian education, God had shut 
me up from the more horrid abominations, cursing, 
swearing, lewdness, intemperance, and neglect of the 
forms of religion. But, ah ! with what earnestness 
I indulged myself in sins not less criminal, though 
less open and infamous ! When his dread law con- 
vinced my conscience, that my secret faults were set 
in the light of his countenance ; and that what is 
esteemed in the sight of men is an abomination to the 
Lord ; how eagerly I turned aside to seek righte- 
ousness, as it were by the works of the law ! When 
conscience upbraided me for neglect of former duties, 
particularly of acts of worship, how often have I re- 
doubled, or even tripled the ordinary tale, in order 
to pay off my old debts ! How foolishly my heart 
cried, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 
Still my conscience, like the daughter of the horse 
leech, cried, Give ! give ! The Lord thundered into 
my soul, " As many as are of the works of the law 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



55 



are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is 
every one that continueth not in all things written in 
the book of the law to do them. Cursed is he that 
trusteth in man, that maketh flesh his arm, whose 
heart departeth from the living" God." While I 5 
for many days compassed Sinai, going about to esta- 
blish my own righteousness, together with, or more 
truly in opposition to, the righteousness of Christ, 
the thunder waxed louder and louder. How then 
was my moisture turned into the drought of summer, 
and I was wearied in the greatness of my way ! 
How plainly I perceived all my attempts towards 
virtue, to be the mire and dirt, cast up from a 
troubled sea of inward rage and enmity against God, 
— against the Redeemer ! How 1 trembled to feel 
myself reserved in chains of guilt, condemnation, 
and sinful pollution, to the judgment of the great 
day ! How oft my agonized soul sobbed forth, 
41 My bones are dried ; my hope is lost ; and I am 
cut off for my part." Not all the flames of Sinai 
could melt my heart. I hardened myself in sorrow, 
and became more obstinate in inward rebellion against 
the Lord. I went on frowardly in the way of my 
heart. I loved idols, and after them I would go. 

But, thanks be to God, that stopt my career! 
while I rolled and raged in my blood, without any 
eye to pity me, he passed by me, and looked upon 
me, and said unto me, when I was in my blood, my 
devilish rage against the Redeemer, Live ! And be- 
hold, my time was the time of love, the day of 



56 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



power, the day of espousals indeed ! Determined to 
make an uncommon stretch of almighty grace, he 
hedged me in. Before, behind, and on every side, 
I heard, I saw, I felt, not cherubims with flaming 
swords — but calls — but cords of everlasting love. 
Before me I saw, I heard, God in Christ reconciling 
the world to himself, saying to my heart, u I am the 
Lord thy God." To silence every doubt, he sware 
unto me, 44 Hear, O my people, and I will speak : I 
will testify against thee. I am God, even thy God" 
—as really, as fully thine, as I am God ! Behind I 
heard his voice, 44 Thou shalt have no other gods be- 
fore me." I saw myself thus charged, with all the 
authority of heaven, to take God, Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost, in Christ, to be my God, and my all ; 
'and that neither blasphemy, nor murder, nor any- 
thing horrid, could be more aggravated rebellion 
against him, than my not believing that he was my 
God ; and that all conception, all worship of him, 
under any other view than as my God, was but the 
placing an idol in his room ! How my heart was 
astonished to find, that the first and great command- 
ments so charged me, the chief of sinners, a very 
prince of devils, to possess what the Lord God giveth 
me — to possess the infinite all, as in Christ my own. 
When, in humility, produced from hell, I pled, that 
I was not worthy of him — that I could not believe — 
could not receive him — could not obey his sweet com- 
mand — he took me by the arms, by the heart on every 
side, and said, " I will be to them a God, and they 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



•57 



shall be to me a people. I will say, It is my people ; 
and they shall say, The Lord is my God." 

Thus encompassed on every side, tell me, ye sons 
of men, ye powers of darkness, what was I that I 
could withstand God ! Had all the enmity in hell 
been concentred in my heart, how could it have 
withstood such omnipotence of love ! how could I 
have escaped out of God's hands ! how could I have 
trodden on the exceedingly great and precious pro- 
mise and oath of God, confirmed with his blood! how 
could I have trampled on the great, the kind com- 
mandment of infinite love ! how could I have torn 
the bowels of an apprehending Saviour, a beseeching 
God ! how could I have broke the arms of almighty 
grace, which grasped me hard ! how could my heart, 
my soul, forbear to cry out, Amen, so be it, Lord : 
to say of the Lord, u He is my refuge and my for- 
tress ; my God, in whom I will trust ; my Lord, and 
my God : Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief!" 

But will God indeed be mine, wholly mine ! for 
ever mine ! Is the giving word, the oath, gone out 
of his mouth, and sealed with his blood! Cursed 
then be every disposition, every thought of my soul, 
that dissents. Let the mouth of these liars be 
stopped — Lord, persecute and destroy, from under 
these heavens, this evil heart of unbelief ; thy curse 
unto it. But what shall I render to the Lord for 
his infinite gift of himself to me! Such as lam, 
Lord, I give myself to thee, as my God. Myself as 
naked, as guilty, I give to thee, as my God, my righte- 

F 



58 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



ousness ; my God, that covereth with robes of righte- 
ousness and garments of salvation ; my God, that 
justifieth the ungodly freely by his grace, through the 
redemption that is in Christ Jesus ; my God, un- 
matched in forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. 
Myself, as foolish and ignorant, I give to thee, as 
my God, my Redeemer, that teacheth to profit ; my 
God, who hath compassion on the ignorant, and open- 
eth the eyes of the blind, and maketh the heart of the 
rash to understand knowledge— to my Christ, as made 
of God to me wisdom. Myself, as polluted, I give to 
thee, my God, that saveth from all uncleanness — to 
thee, my Redeemer, who art come to Zion to turn 
away ungodliness from Jacob ; who art a fountain 
opened for sin and uncleanness ; who art made of God 
to me sanctification. Myself, as rebellious, I give to 
thee, my God of peace, who slays the enmity by the 
blood of his Son, and to thee, O Jesus, who hath re- 
ceived gifts for men j yea for the rebellious, that God 
the Lord may dwell among them, and daily load them 
with his benefits. Myself, as weak, insufficient to 
think any thing, do any thing, spiritually good, I give 
to thee, my God, who giveth power to the faint, and 
increaseth strength to them that have no might — to 
thee, the worker in and for me of thy good pleasure. 
Myself, Sispoor and wretched, as poverty and emptiness 
itself, I give to thee, my God, my all, and in all — my 
God, who accounts it more blessed to give than to 
receive, that thou mayest supply all my wants out of 
thy riches in glory by Christ Jesus. 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



50 



IV Reflections of a Christian, upon his Spiritual 

Elevations and Dejections. 

My life is indeed hid with Christ in God. My 
new covenant state is as mount Zion, which can never 
be moved. But ah ! the instability of my spiritual 
condition ! How often God hath lifted me up and cast 
me down again ! 

Sometimes he hath lifted me up, in allowing me 
sweetly distinct views of divine truth, and of Jesus 
and his Father therein. In his light, I saw light, 
and walked, read, heard, and meditated, in the light 
of his countenance ! O my pleasant insight into the 
mystery of divine persons, and of divine perfections, 
as manifested in Christ ! — into the mystery of re- 
demption, in its rise, means, matter, and end; and 
into my duty, with relation thereto, even in intricate 
circumstances ! Anon he casts me down into deep and 
darksome caves. Ah then, my ignorant, carnal, and 
misshapen apprehensions of divine things ! Amidst 
the best means of instruction, all were like a sealed 
book to my soul. I groped as a blind man at noon- 
day, neither understanding what was exhibited, nor 
whence I had come, nor whither I should go. 

Sometimes God, by his word and Spirit, afforded 
me the most convincing assurance that he was my 
Saviour, my husband, my father, my friend, my phy- 
sician, my God, and my all and in all! and enabled 
me to claim him in every character, in every promise, 



60 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



without the least hesitation. Anon he permitted me 
to fall into such darkness and douhts, that I could be 
persuaded of scarce any thing inspired. I doubted 
of, I disputed against, all his saving relations to me — 
all his promises of kindness to me. Even when he 
testified against me that he was God, even my God, 
I pleaded he was a liar. Ah shocking! resisted, re- 
belled against, and vexed his Holy Spirit! 

Sometimes God hath lifted me up to a sweet sere- 
nity of soul. Like one beloved of the Lord, I dwelt 
in safety. No angry challenge from heaven, or from 
my conscience, disturbed my repose. Even amidst 
troubles, or in the views thereof, I rested in the Lord, 
and quietly waited for his salvation. Anon he cast 
me into deep waters, where there was no standing. 
All his waves and billows went over me. Ah ! how 
tossed with tempest, and not comforted ! While hea- 
ven deserted and frowned, while the arrows of the 
Almighty stuck fast in me, and the poison thereof 
drunk up my spirit, Satan trode me under his feet, 
sheathed in me thousands of his fiery darts : my raging 
corruptions wrought and were tempestuous : the 
world hated, reproached, and persecuted me ! Scarce 
ought remained, but a fearful looking for of fiery in- 
dignation. 

Sometimes God hath lifted me up, in so plentifully 
shedding abroad his love in my heart, and so power- 
fully arresting my thoughts on divine things, that not 
all the temptations of Satan, or the solicitations of this 
world, could draw it aside. My heart so burned 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



61 



with love to him, that it could desire nothing, care 
for nothing, and converse with nothing, but himself. 
Anon it became so loose, so unfixed, that I could not 
for my soul confine it a moment to a spiritual object 
in a spiritual manner ; but whole armies of idle, ig- 
norant, legal, unbelieving, blasphemous, proud, cove- 
tous, malicious, or wanton thoughts, crowded into my 
mind. 

Sometimes God, in lifting me up, hath inflamed 
my heart with the most ardent desire after himself. 
How my soul longed, thirsted, hungered, and panted 
for the Lord! How she cried and followed hard 
after him! Nothing could divert, nothing could 
check, my ardour in pursuit of himself; and when I 
found him 1 held him as with a death grasp, and would 
not let him go. With what brokenness, what eager- 
ness of heart, I wept, and made supplication to him ! 
Anon, by casting down, I could neither breathe after, 
nor pray for his visits. I neither knew nor cared, 
whether I found him or not. Nay, rationally sensible 
that my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone, 
a stupid unconcern overpowered my heart : I was 
almost content to have his room filled with sinful 
pleasures, and earthly enjoyments. 

Sometimes God hath so lifted me up, enabling me 
to live on Christ himself, above dependance on sensi- 
ble frames, that I rested on, and gloried in, his per- 
son, office, love, righteousness, intercession, power, 
and faithfulness, as the infallible security of my for- 
giveness, acceptance, sanctification, comfort, and eter- 
f 2 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



nal felicity, notwithstanding much felt guilt, tempta- 
tion, and trouble. Anon I have been so cast down, 
that my spiritual courage and hope altered as my 
inward frames did. 

Sometimes I have been so lifted up, that I could 
with pleasure distinctly review my former noted en* 
joyments of Christ ; how, when, and where, he ap- 
peared to my soul, loosed my bands, forgave my sins, 
quickened and feasted my soul. Anon I have been 
so cast down, that I lost the impression of former 
experiences ; could scarce discern whether they were 
from heaven, or of men ; from heaven, or from hell : 
and, alas, strangely careless what was their nature, 
source, or tendency ! Ah ! how the promises, the 
words of grace, in which I had formerly tasted that 
the Lord is gracious, became as idle tales, as a well 
without water, and as flinty rocks ! 

Sometimes the zeal of his house, inflamed by the 
applications of redeeming love, and directed by his 
word and Spirit, hath eaten me up : I counted no- 
thing, no not life itself, dear unto me, if I might 
have Jesus exalted, his truths believed and maintained, 
and his people increased in the earth. Anon I have 
fallen under the power of so much selfishness, that, 
if I could get my own interest secured, I scarce re- 
garded the glory or the public honours of Christ. 

Sometimes God hath filled my mouth with his 
praise and honour all the day. I could not refrain 
from praise. I could not forbear commending him 
whom my soul loveth. I could not but, in a manner 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



suited to my station, invite others to come, taste, and 
see, that God is good ; could not but call such as 
feared God to hear what he had done for my soul. 
Anon a dumb devil hath taken possession of my 
heart ; sinful bashfulness, confusion, and carelessness, 
have quite disqualified me for conference on any 
spiritual subject : nay, I felt a strong inclination to 
deal in trifles and calumny. 

Sometimes God hath so feasted me, in his ordi- 
nances, that the frequent return of sabbaths, sacra- 
mental occasions, opportunities of family, social, or 
secret worship, was my delight. Often I had him 
pre-engaged to vouchsafe his presence, in this and 
that ordinance of his grace. Often the Angel of the 
covenant restrained the winds of temptation and 
floods of corruption, while he sealed my soul to the 
day of redemption. O how he brought me into the 
banqueting-house, and his banner over me was love! 
How he stayed me with flagons, and comforted me 
with apples, while I was sick of love ! Anon ordi- 
nances became to me as dry breasts, and a miscarry- 
ing womb. Ah ! their approach seemed a trifle, a 
burden, to my careless, carnal heart! Neither be- 
fore, nor in, nor after, did I enjoy the visits of 
Christ. In my attendance, levity, legality, and un- 
concern, carried all before them. How oft the voice, 
the gesture, the method, of the administrator, took 
that room in my heart, which pertained to Christ ! 
Often disappointed of the presence of God, ah ! how 
I sunk into mere formality, or doubts of my duty to 



B4 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



attend ! — and at last how often have I neglected wor* 
ship altogether, if the hurry of the world seemed to 
call me to some other business ! 

Sometimes God hath carried me up to mount Pis- 
gah, and shown me the celestial Canaan, and my 
irrevocable title thereto, till my whole soul was trans- 
ported with wonder, with desire, and delight ! How 
I desired to depart and to be with Christ, which is 
far better! How I groaned to be clothed upon, 
with my house which is from heaven ! Anon he 
held back the face of his throne, and spread his cloud 
over it. Heaven was forgotten : my interest therein 
was unseen. Nay, how oft hell presented itself as 
the heritage appointed me by God ! 

Are thy frames, my soul, so changeable ? Let me 
charge thee to have no confidence in thyself : but 
live by faith on the Son of God, and his everlasting 
covenant, which are the same yesterday, to-day, and 
for ever. Count all but loss, for the excellency of 
the knowledge of Christ Jesus thy Lord : count them 
but dung to win him, and to be found in him, not 
having thy own righteousness which is of the law, 
but the righteousness which is of God by faith. 



V. — Reflections of a Candidate for the Ministerial 
Office. 

Dost thou, my soul, desire the office of a bishop of 
souls, a minister of Christ ? Examine with deep 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



65 



concern thy preparation for, thy call to, and thy 
end in offering thyself to, this important work. 

Am I a real Christian ; or am I a devil — a dis- 
sembler with God and men — an entertainer of sin — 
of Satan, in my heart ? Am I circumcised with the 
circumcision of Christ, having my corrupt nature 
renewed ; old things passed away, and all things be- 
come new ? Do I worship God in the spirit ; read, 
meditate, pray, converse, under the influence of the 
Holy Ghost ! Do I certainly know what Christ is 
to me ? Do I rejoice in what he is in himself, and 
what he is to, and hath done for and in me ? Have 
I no confidence in the fiesh — in my righteousness, 
my learning, my address ? Hath the Holy Ghost 
emptied me of self, in every form, till he hath made 
me poor in spirit, less than the least of all saints in 
my own sight ? Hath he with a strong hand in- 
structed me, to count all things but loss for the ex- 
cellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus as my 
Lord, and to count them but dung to win him, and 
be found in him, not having my own righteousness, 
but the righteousness which is of God by faith ? Do 
I earnestly desire to know him and the power of his 
resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings ; 
and press towards the mark, for the prize of the high 
calling of God in Christ Jesus ? What furniture of 
gifts hath Christ bestowed on me ? what aptness to 
teach ? what knowledge of the mysteries of the king- 
dom ? what skill to instruct others, bringing out of 
my treasure things new and old ? what ability to 



66 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



make the deep things of God o'tSvious to the weaker 
capacities ? what proper quickness of conception ? 
what proper inclination to study, as one devoted to 
matters of infinite consequence ? what peculiar fit- 
ness for the pulpit, qualifying me to commend my- 
self to every man's conscience, preaching not in the 
enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstra- 
tion of the Spirit, and with power ? With what 
stock of self-experience, texts, and principles of in- 
spiration, am I entering on the tremendous office ? 
Of what truths, relative to the law of God and its 
threatenings ; relative to sin, to Satan, and to divine 
desertion ; hath my saddened soul felt the power, 
tasting the wormwood and the gall ? Of what de- 
clarations and promises of grace have I tasted, and 
seen that God is good ? What cords of infinite love 
have caught and held my heart ? What oracles of 
heaven have I found and eaten ; and they have been 
to me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart ? Of 
what truths, what texts, could I now say, u I believe, 
and therefore I speak." 41 What I have heard with 
the Father, what I have seen, and heard, and tasted, 
and handled of the word of life, that declare I unto 
you." 

Suppose my connexions with the great, my address 
to the people, should ever so easily procure a license, 
a charge ; yet, if I run unsent of Christ, in my 
whole ministration I must act the part of a thief, a 
robber, a traitor to Christ, and a murderer of souls, 
not profiting them at all. If, without his commis- 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



87 



sion, I enter the office, what direction, what support, 
what comfort, what acceptance, what reward, can I 
expect in and of my work ? Say, then, my con- 
science, as thou shalt answer at the judgment-seat 
of God, am I taking this honour to myself ; or am I 
called of God, as Aaron was ? Is Christ sending 
me, and laying a necessity upon me to preach the 
gospel ? While he determines me to follow provi- 
dence, and take no irregular step towards thrusting 
myself into the office, is he breathing on my soul, 
and causing me to receive the Holy Ghost ? Is he 
endowing me with deep compassion to the souls of 
men ; and with a deep sense of my own unfitness, 
and earnest desire to be sanctified and made meet for 
the Master's use ? In the progress of my education, 
am I going bound in the spirit, with the love of 
Christ burning in my heart, and constraining me ; 
rendering me cheerfully willing to suffer poverty, 
contempt and hatred of all men, for Christ's name's 
sake ; — willing, if possible, to risk my own salvation 
in winning others to Christ ? What scriptures have 
directed and encouraged me to this work ? In what 
form doth Jesus seem to be giving me my commis- 
sion ? Whether 44 to open the eyes of the Gentiles, 
and to turn them from darkness to light, and from 
the power of Satan unto God ; that they may receive 
forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them 
that are sanctified?" or to 44 Go, make the heart of 
this people fat, and their ears heavy, and shut their 
eyes?" What promise of Christ's presence with, 



68 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



and assistance in, my work, have I received from 
above ? 

What is mine end in my advances towards this 
work ? Dare I appeal to him that searcheth my 
heart, and trieth my reins — to him who will quickly 
be my judge — that I seek not great things to myself ; 
that I covet no man's silver, gold, or apparel ; that 
I seek not theirs, but them ; that neither of men 
seek I glory ; that I look not on mine own things, 
but on the things of Christ ; that I seek not mine 
own honour, but the honour of him that sends me ? 

Have I considered diligently what is before me ; 
or am I running blindfold on the tremendous charge? 
Have I considered the nature and circumstances of 
the ministerial work, or that therein I am to be an 
ambassador for Christ, to beseech perishing souls, 
on the brink of hell, to be reconciled unto God? — 
a steward of the mysteries and manifold grace of 
God ; — that, at the infinite hazard of my soul, it is 
required of me to be faithful ; — that in my minis- 
trations I, with all humility, and many tears, serve 
the Lord with my spirit, in the gospel of his Son, — 
keep back no part of the counsel of God — no in- 
struction, no reproof, no encouragement; that I 
testify repentance towards God, and faith towards 
our Lord Jesus Christ ; not moved with reproach, 
persecution, hunger, or nakedness ; nor even count 
my life dear unto me, if so I may finish my course 
with joy ; — ready not only to be bound, but to die, 
for the name of Jesus ; — willing rather to be ruined 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



69 



with Christ than to reign with emperors ; — that I 
labour with much fear and trembling, determined to 
know, to glory in, and to make known, nothing but 
Christ and him crucified ; — not with enticing words 
of man's wisdom, as a man-pleaser, but with great 
plainness of speech, in demonstration of the Spirit 
and with power ; — speaking the things freely given 
to me of God by his Spirit, not in the words which 
man's wisdom teacheth, but in words which the 
Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things 
with spiritual, and having the mind of Christ ; — al- 
ways triumphing in Christ, and making manifest the 
favour of his knowledge in every place ; — being to 
God a sweet savour of Christ in them that are 
saved, and in them that perish ; as of sincerity, as of 
God, in the sight of God, speaking in Christ ; 
through the mercy of God, not fainting, but re- 
nouncing the hidden things of dishonesty ; not walk- 
ing in craftiness, nor handling the word of God 
deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth to 
every man's conscience in the sight of God ; — not 
preaching myself, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and 
myself a servant to the church for Jesus' sake ; — al- 
ways bearing about the dying of the Lord, that 
his life may be made manifest in me. Knowing the 
terror of the Lord, and his future judgment, I must 
persuade men, making myself manifest to God and 
to their conscience ; — constrained with the love of 
Christ, must change my voice, and turn myself every 
way., to bring sinners to the tree of life ; — jealous 



70 



LIFE AND REMAINS 03? 



over them with a godly jealousy, and espousing them 
as chaste virgins to Christ ; — travailing in birth till 
Christ be formed in them ; — must take heed to my 
ministry which I have received in the Lord, that I 
fulfil it ; — give myself wholly to reading, exhortation, 
and doctrine ; — taking heed to myself and doctrine, 
that I may save myself and themthathear me; — watch- 
ing for their souls as one that must give an account ; 
. — rightly dividing the word of truth, and giving every 
man his portion in due season ; — faithfully warning 
every man, and teaching every man, and labouring 
to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus ; — and 
warring, not after the flesh, nor with weapons of 
warfare that are carnal, but mighty through God to 
the pulling down of strong holds, and casting down 
of imaginations, and subduing every thought and 
affection to the obedience of Christ. Having Christ 
Jesus for the end of my conversation, and holding 
fast the form of sound words in faith and love, which 
is in him. I must go forth without the camp, bearing 
his reproach, and feeding the flock of God, over 
which the Holy Ghost hath made me an overseer, 
and which God hath purchased with his own blood ; 
—preaching to the congregation sound doctrine in 
faith and verity ; — taking the oversight thereof not 
by constraint, but willingly ; not for filthy lucre, but 
of a ready mind ; neither as being a lord over God's 
heritage, but as an example to the flock, — exercised 
unto godliness; holy, just, and unblameable ; — an 
example to the believers in word, in conversation, in 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



71 



charity, in faith, in purity; — fleeing youthful lusts, 
and following after righteousness, peace, faith, cha- 
rity; avoiding foolish and unlearned questions; — not 
striving, but being gentle to all men ; — in meekness 
instructing those that oppose themselves ; — fleeing 
from perverse disputings and worldly-mindedness as 
most dangerous snares, and following after righte- 
ousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness ; 
— fighting the good fight of faith, and laying hold on 
eternal life ; — preaching the word in season and out 
of season; reproving, rebuking, exhorting, with all 
long-suffering and doctrine ; — keeping the trust of 
gospel truth and office committed to me ; and com- 
mitting the same to faithful men, who may be able 
to teach others. And, in fine, to try false teachers; 
rebuke, before all, such as sin openly ; restore such 
as have been overtaken in a fault, in the spirit of 
meekness; and, having compassion on them, to pull 
them out of the fire, hating the garment spotted by 
the flesh. 



VI. — Reflections of one entered into the Pastoral 
Office. 

Ponder, my soul, with solemn awe! Am I without 
that God, that Christ, a stranger to that covenant of 
promise, which I preach to others ? While I com- 



72 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



mend Jesus from the pulpit, am I a despiser of him 
in my heart ? While I, in the name of God, require 
others to receive him as the unspeakable gift of God, 
am I rejecting him myself? Am I daily occupied 
in preparing the delicious gospel entertainment for 
others, while I refuse to taste it myself? If my ends 
are selfish, or if I am not hearty in my work, how 
can God be expected to bless my endeavours ? If in 
heart I am Satan's servant, how can I be true to 
Christ, or earnest for his honour ? If I have not 
drunk deep of the terrors of the Lord, the bitterness 
of sin, the vanity of this world, the importance of 
eternity, and of the conscience- quieting and heart- 
captivating virtue of Christ, how can I be serious 
and hearty in preaching the gospel ? If I am not 
influenced by a predominant love to Christ — if I live 
not to him — if my heart is not fixed upon eternal 
things — if it pant not after fellowship with Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost; and follow not eagerly holi- 
ness and peace, and prefer not the welfare of the 
church to my chiefest joy in this world — how can I, 
without the most abominable treachery and dissimula- 
tion, declare to men their chief happiness, and the 
proper methods to obtain it ? 

If I am a graceless preacher, how terrible is my 
condition! If I open my bible, the sentence of my 
double damnation flashes into my conscience from 
every page. If I compose my sermon, I but draw 
up an awful indictment against myself. If I argue 
against men's sins, I but aggravate my own. If I 



THE REV. JOHN BROtVN. 



73 



mention hell with its insupportable and everlasting 
torments, I but enfeoff myself therein, as the just 
portion of my cup, and my inheritance appointed me 
by the Almighty. If I speak of Jesus and his excel- 
lencies, it is but to tread him under my feet. If I 
take his new covenant and the fulness, the blessings 
therein contained, into my mouth, it is but to pro- 
fane them, to cast them out to be trodden under foot 
of men. If I commend Jesus, and his Father, and 
blessed Spirit, it is but to stab them under the fifth 
rib, to betray them with a kiss! While I hold up 
the glass of God's law, and of his gospel, to others, 
I turn its back to myself. My gospel is hid to me 
who am lost, in whom the god of this world hath 
blinded the mind of me who believe not, lest the light 
of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine into my 
heart. 

If I know not the Alpha and Omega— the truth — ■ 
what is all my knowledge but an accursed puffer up ! 
a murderer of my soul ! Ah ! how my table, my 
reading, my meditations, my sermons, my principles, 
my prayers, as a trap and snare, take and bind me 
hand and foot, to cast me, the unprofitable servant, 
into outer darkness ; with all my bible, all my books, 
all my gifts, as it were, inlaid in my conscience, like 
fuel, like oil, for ever, to enrage the flames of infinite 
wrath against my soul ! Ah ! am I set here, at the 
gate of heaven, as a candle to waste myself in showing 
others the way, in lighting up the Bridegroom's 
friends ; and must my lamp at the end go out in 
g 2 



74 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



obscure darkness ! If I die unfaithful to Christ, in 
what a tremendous manner shall I for ever sink into 
the bottomless pit, under the weight of the blood of 
the Son of God, the Saviour of men, — under the 
weight of murdered truths, murdered convictions, 
murdered gifts, a murdered ministry, and murdered 
souls ! How for ever curse myself, that I did not 
rather choose to be a tinker, a chimney-sweeper, an 
executioner, than a pretended, a treacherous, minister 
of Christ ! Vile, vile, accursed hypocrite, how shalt 
thou abide with devouring fire ! how shalt thou dwell 
with everlasting burnings ! 

Suppose I should know the grace of God in truth ; 
yet, if my graces are not kept lively — if my loins are 
not girt, and my lamp burning, all inflamed with 
Jesus' love constraining my heart — how careless, how 
carnal, how blasted, how accursed, must my minis- 
trations be ! Ponder, my soul, the nature of thy 
work, as a dealing between the infinite God and the 
immortal, the perishing souls of men! Ponder the 
extent of my duties, and the solemnity of my engage- 
ments ! Think how the honours and privileges of 
my office, and my relation to Christ therein, ought 
to instigate me to faithfulness ! What self-denial, 
what pure regard to the honour of God, what pru- 
dence, what diligence, what humility, what zeal, what 
spirituality of heart and life, what noted dependence 
on Jesus by faith ; what order, what plainness, what 
just temperature of mildness and severity, is necessary 
in thus dealing with the souls of men ! 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



75 



But, ah! while I stand in the courts of the Lord, 
and minister holy things in his name, how polluted 
and abominable is my heart, my life! Ah, what 
lusts prevail ! How dreadful the case of my hearers' 
souls, if it is like mine ! What if I have less of the 
reality of religion than the weakest, the most unten- 
der saint of my charge ! Ah ! how my evil heart of 
unbelief departs from the living God ! Where, where 
is my faith in God? where is my burning of heart, 
while Jesus speaks to me and opens to me the scrip- 
tures ? Where are my love-pantings, my languishing, 
my cries for the Lord ? Where is my habitual fel- 
lowship with Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — my sit- 
ting under Jesus' shadow with great delight, while his 
fruit is sweet to my taste ? Where is my constant 
travailing in birth till Christ be formed in the souls 
of men ? Where are the agonies which my heart 
hath undergone, both in the night and in the day, 
while the saving, the sanctifying presence of God was 
denied to me, or to my flock ? Nay, how often hath 
pride been almost all in all to me ! How often it 
hath chosen my companions, my dress, my victuals ! — 
hath chosen my text, my subject, my language! how 
often indited my thoughts ! and, to the reproach, the 
blasting of the gospel, hath decked my sermon with 
tawdry ornaments and fancies, as if it had been a 
stage-play ! how often it hath blunted Jesus' sharp 
arrow's of truth with its swollen bombast, or silken 
smoothness ! In the pulpit, how often pride hath 
formed my looks, my tone, my action, and kindled 



TO 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



me into earnestness ! How often it hath rendered 
me glad to hear my subsequent applause, and pro- 
voked with the news of my contempt ! Ah, how 
much of my labour is owing to pride, spurred on by 
the fame of learning, diligence, or sanctity ! No 
wonder my labours, so much influenced by satanical 
motives, do Satan's kingdom so little hurt! Think, 
too, my soul, if my pride never made me envy or 
wound the characters of such as differed from me or 
outshined me ; if it never made me reluctant to ad- 
mit reproof, especially from those of inferior stations. 
Think if pride is less inconsistent with real Christi- 
anity than drunkenness or whoredom ! How much 
a factious spirit prevails with me ! Did I never take 
up a religious principle in the way of factious con- 
tention ? Did I never undervalue the peace and unity 
of the church ? Have I been afflicted with Zion in 
all her afflictions, as if they had been my own ? By 
proving my opponents in a controversy deceivers and 
blasphemers, have I never, in respect of manner or 
end, pleaded the cause of the devil? Did I never 
incline to have any destitute of the ordinances or in- 
fluences of heaven, rather than my party should be 
dishonoured? Ah, how slothful have I been in the 
work of the Lord — in studying the matter of divine 
truths, and their connexion with Christ and with one 
another ! or in delivering them to my hearers ! How 
slothful in sympathizing with and helping such as had 
no fixed gospel ministrations ; or in devising and 
carrying on projects for the honour of Jesus, and the 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



77 



welfare of soals ! How often carnal interest hath 
marred ray zeal for the interest of Christ ! Hence 
what temporizing with the laws and customs of the 
world ! What shrinking from duties that required 
much labour or expense ! What uncheerfulness in 
giving large alms ; and backwardness to improve 
whatever I have, for the honour of Christ, and the 
welfare of men ! 

Awake, my conscience ! What meanest thou, O 
sleeper ! Bestir thyself for thy God. Ah ! I tremble 
to think how my parents, who piously devoted, who 
educated me to this work of the Lord ; how the 
masters, the teachers, who prepared me for it ; how 
the seminaries of learning in which I was instructed, 
the years I have spent in study, the gifts which God 
hath bestowed on me, my voluntary undertaking of 
the work ; how all the thoughts, the words, the 
works, of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to promote 
our redemption ; how all the divine commandments, 
promises, and threatenings, which inculcate my duty ; 
— all the examples of apostles, prophets, and faith- 
ful ministers ; how all the leaves of my bible, all 
the books in my closet, all the sermons I preach, all 
the instructions and exhortations I tender ; all the 
discipline I exercise ; all the maintenance I receive : 
all the honours which I enjoy or expect ; all the 
testimonies I have given against the negligence of 
parents, masters, ministers, or magistrates ; all the 
vows, and resolutions I have made to reform ; and 
all the prayers I have presented to God for assistance 



76 



LIFE ANI> REMAINS OF 



or success ; shall rise up against me in the clay of the 
Lord, if I do his work deceitfully : alas ! who shall 
live when the Lord cloth this ? 

Think, my soul, as at the awful bar, did not the 
Holy Ghost — who is ready to furnish me with every 
thing necessary — did not God, put me into the minis- 
try ? Was it that I might waste devoted time, that 
I might tear his church, mangle his truths, betray 
his honour, and murder the souls of men! Is not 
my charge the flock of God, the flock of God pur- 
chased with his own blood ? Shall I destroy God's 
property — attempt to frustrate the end of his death ? 
Hath Jesus died for souls ! Shall I then think any- 
thing too hard to be done for their salvation ? Shall 
I not part with all, put up with all, to win men to 
Christ ? Was he crucified for them, for me ! Shall 
I not crucify my selfishness, my pride, my sloth, my 
concupiscence, to save myself, and them that hear 
me ? How hard my work ! While my own salva- 
tion is at stake, how deeply connected with my dili- 
gence and faithfulness is the salvation of multitudes ! 
How the powers of hell set themselves against me 
and my office, in order that they may triumph over 
Christ and his church in my fall ! How many eyes 
of God, angels, and men, are upon me ! Why then, 
conscience, do I speak of heaven or hell — of Jesus 
and his love — his blood — of the new covenant and its 
blessings, in so careless and sleepy a manner ! — when 
before, and on every side of my pulpit, there are so 
many scores or hundreds of immortal souls suspended 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 79 

over hell by the frail thread of life, already in the 
hands of the devil, and gasping towards everlasting 
ruin — slain by the gospel of Christ ! Why do not 
tears of deep concern mingle themselves with every 
sentence I utter, when multitudes, just plunging into 
damnation, and, perhaps hearing for the last time, 
are, in respect of need, crying, with an exceeding 
bitter cry, Help, minister, I perish, I perish! pluck 
the brand out of the burning ; help to escape from 
the wrath to come ! How should I spend a moment 
of my devoted time in idle chit-chat, in useless read- 
ing, in unnecessary sleep ! What if, meanwhile, 
some one of my charge drop into hell-fire, and com- 
mence his everlasting curses of me for not doing more 
for his salvation ! What shall I do if God riseth up 
to require their blood at my hand ! How accursed 
that knowledge which I do not improve for the honour 
of Christ, the bestower ! How accursed that ease 
which issues in the damnation of men! How ac- 
cursed that conformity to the world which permits 
my hearers to sleep hellward in sin ! 



VII, — Reflections of a Minister encouraging himself 
in Christ. 

Have I obtained mercy ? Hath the Son of God 
loved me, and given himself for me ? Hath he trans- 
lated me from darkness to his marvellous light ? Hath 



80 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



be called me, and furnished me with knowledge, with 
spiritual experiences, for my work ? Let me show 
forth the praises of him who hath called me. Why 
art thou cast down, my soul? Still trust in God, 
for I shall yet praise him, who is the help, the health, 
of my countenance, and my God. Hath he separated 
me to the gospel of the grace of God ? counted me 
faithful, putting me into the ministry, and giving me, 
who am less than the least of all saints, this grace, 
that I should preach amongst the Gentiles, the un- 
searchable riches of Christ ? 

Let me magnify mine office. He hath raised me 
from ciie dunghill, and exalted me above principalities 
and powers, thrones and dominions, to be a stated 
preacher of Christ, a stated ambassador and herald 
of the Lord of hosts. How superlatively pleasant 
my business — to survey, to tell out, the exceeding 
riches of Christ — all my own ! — to publish exceeding 
great and precious promises, all given to me ! — to de- 
clare to my brethren the name that is. as ointment 
poured forth ! — to proclaim redemption through the 
blood of God, even the forgiveness of sins, accord- 
ing to the riches of his grace ! — to be ever, with 
joy, drawing water out of the wells of salvation ; and 
have rivers of living waters flowing out of my belly, 
for the refreshment of others ! — to be God's un- 
muzzled ox, treading out his corn, the finest of the 

wheat ! to be a worker together with God in the 

chiefest of all his ways, the salvation of men ! — to be 
like angels, always beholding the face of my Father 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



81 



which is in heaven ! — to be all the days of my life 
dwelling in the house of the Lord ; beholding his 
beauty, and inquiring reverently in his temple! — to 
be measuring the height, the length, the depth, the 
breadth, and to know the love of Christ, which 
passeth knowledge, and to be filled with all the ful- 
ness of God ! 

Let me, therefore, be in nothing terrified by my 
adversaries, nor by the arduous nature of my work. 
In the full assurance that Jesus is mine, and hath 
called me, let no distress, no persecution, no danger, 
move me. Jesus, the forerunner, for me is entered. 
He, the breaker, is gone up before me: he hath 
broken up, and passed through : he is on my head, 
and at my right hand ; I shall not be moved : he 
sendeth none a warfare upon his own charges: he hath 
said to my soul, Lo, I am with thee alway, even unto 
the end of the world. As thy days are, so shall thy 
strength be. My presence shall go with thee, and I 
will give thee rest. When thou passest through the 
waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers, 
they shall not overflow thee : when thou walkest 
through the fire thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall 
the flame kindle upon thee. Fear not, I am with 
thee : be not dismayed, I am thy God. Fear not, 
worm Jacob ! I will help thee. Behold, I will make 
thee a new sharp-threshing instrument, having teeth, 
and thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them 
small ; and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and glory 
in the Holy One of Israel. I will be with thy mouth. 

H 



H2 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



Behold, I have made thee a defenced city, and an 
iron pillar, and a brazen wall, against the whole 
land. I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver 
thee. I, even I, am he that comforteth thee. Who 
art thou, that art afraid of a man ? I will give you 
another Comforter, that he may abide with you for 
ever, even the Spirit of Truth. He shall teach you 
all things, and bring all things to your remembrance. 
He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. 
When he is come, he will convince the world of sin, 
and of righteousness, and of judgment. Be thou 
faithful unto the death, and I will give thee a crown 
of life. He that loseth his life for my sake shall find 
it. To him that overcometh will I give to sit with 
me on my throne, even as I also overcame and am 
set down with my Father on his throne. 

Bestir thyself, my soul ; let me walk in the light 
of the Lord ; let me set my face as a flint ; let me 
give my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them 
that pluck off the hair. I shall not be confounded ; 
for the Lord God will help me. Let me go forth in 
him as my might, to promote the salvation of souls, 
that they may be my hope, my reward, my joy, my 
glory, and crown of rejoicing in the day of the Lord. 
Nay, though Israel be not gathered, I shall be glo- 
rious in the eyes of the Lord ; my judgment shall be 
with the Lord, and my work with my God. Is Je- 
sus my surety, my sacrifice, my teacher, my Lord, 
my friend, my father, my husband, my Saviour, my 
God, my glory ? Let me indite good matter touch- 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



8:1 



ing the King. Let my tongue be as the pen of a 
ready writer. Let my closed lips be opened, and 
sing aloud of his righteousness and salvation all the 
day, as not knowing the numbers thereof. Let Je- 
sus be the end of all my ministrations. If I seek to 
please men, I cannot be the servant of Christ. If I 
chiefly regard my own honour, my humour, or my 
temporal advantage, how shall I hold up my face to 
Jesus, who loved me, and gave himself for me ! If 
he is the beloved Son of God, full of grace and truth, 
for men, for me, — and made of God to us wisdom, 
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, — let it 
be my great aim to promote the glory of his grace 
in the salvation of all around me ; and to be a good 
savour of Christ unto God, in them that are saved, 
and in them that perish. Let Jesus, in his person, 
natures, offices, relations, works, and blessings, be 
the matter of my ministrations. Let me exhibit 
laws, doctrines, promises, and threatenings, in due 
connexion with him — the law as a covenant fulfilled 
and magnified by him, and driving men to him — the 
law as a rule, sweetened in his blood, founded on his 
atonement, and requiring the improvement of him 
as our all and in all. The promises as yea and amen 
in Christ Jesus — the New Testament in his blood. 
If I display the perfections of God, let it be as they 
shine in the face of Jesus Christ. If I exhibit the 
blessings of divine grace, let me represent them as 
purchased with his blood, lodged in his heart, and 
distributed by his bountiful hand ; and as blessings 



84 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



wherewith the Father blesseth men in Christ Jesus. 
If I point forth the providences of God, let it be as 
the doing of ray Lord, and marvellous in my eyes. 
If I proclaim the terrors of the Almighty, let them 
appear as the sore punishment appointed for such as 
trample Jesus under their feet, and count the blood 
of the covenant an unholy thing ; as the condemna- 
tion of the obstinate refusers of God's unspeakable 
gift. If I call men to repent, let it be in looking to 
Jesus, whom they have pierced. If I inculcate 
prayer, let it be as a coming boldly to the throne of 
grace, in the view of having a great high priest, Je- 
sus the Son of God. If I recommend thanksgiving, 
let it be as chiefly for Christ, and acceptable through 
him. If I press the duties of the law of any kind, 
let it be as part of Christ's purchased salvation, as 
the fruits of faith living on Christ ; as enforced by 
the authority, the love of Christ ; and produced un- 
der the influence of Christ, and his Spirit dwelling 
in us ; as conducive to the glory of Christ ; and ac- 
ceptable only through the merits and intercession of 
Christ. Let every particular duty be enforced with 
some particular consideration of Christ ; 1 Cor. vi. 
8—11, 15; 2 Cor. viii. 9; Tit. ii. 7,9; Rom. xiii. 
14 ; Eph. iv. 22, 25, 32, Let my very style savour 
of Christ, manifesting great plainness and energy, 
extracted from the oracles of Christ. 

Since Jesus hath put me into this dignified office, 
and hath assured me of his assistance and reward, 
let me show myself a workman that needeth not be 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



85 



ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, and 
giving every one his meat in due season, in corres- 
pondence to their respective stations, conditions, and 
inclinations. Let me so preach the grace of the gos- 
pel, as to promote an humble and universal depend- 
ance on Christ ; but meanwhile condemn the slug- 
gish and careless professor. Let me labour to screw 
into every man's conscience the divine truths suited 
to his case. Let me distinctly explain and enforce 
particular duties, and oppose particular lusts and 
vices. After searching my own heart, and much 
prudent pains to understand the spiritual condition 
of the various persons of my charge, let me la- 
bour so to apply my doctrines, that every one may 
know himself and his circumstances before God ; so 
as the ignorant may be instructed, scoffers and gain- 
sayers convinced, the stupid and secure awakened, 
the slothful roused and excited, the legalist and mo- 
ralist have his hopes slain, the hypocrite may feel his 
covering too narrow to wrap himself in, the afflicted 
may be comforted, the wanderer reclaimed, and the 
sincere asker of the way to Zion may be directed, 

In fine, holding fast the form of sound words, t; in 
faith and love which is in Christ Jesus," and keeping 
that good thing, office, gifts, and grace, committed 
to me " by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in me 
let me carefully lay the foundation, in a frequent 
and pointed explication of gospel truth relative to 
Jesus' person, righteousness, and sinners' union with 
with him and justification through his imputed atone- 
h 2 



do 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



ment. Let me, in the most clear and convincing 
manner, point out the nature and circumstances of 
regeneration and turning to God, together with the 
real marks of a gracious state, and the difference be- 
tween spiritual and saving changes of the heart ef- 
fected by the Holy Ghost, and the counterfeits there- 
of. In nothing let me study more accuracy than in 
explaining the nature, progress, and circumstances 
of gospel sanctification. 



VIII. — On Conditional Election and Free-will. 



Observing that our Arminian friends loudly insist 
that their scheme of conditional election, and of 
Christ's death for all men without distinction, and 
of men's ability to believe, and of the possibility of 
falling from grace, is extremely adapted to promote 
the honour of the divine perfections and the comfort 
and holiness of men, I could not but inquire if these 
things were so ; and, upon the most unbiassed exa- 
mination, find them quite the reverse. Is that for 
the honour of the Deity, which supposeth him inca- 
pable to fix the plan of his whole work, relative to 
rational agents, before he commences it ? — that sup- 
poseth him incapable to fix any plan, but when a 
created free -will is his counsellor ; or to prosecute any 
plan but as free-will allows him her permission and 
assistance ? Is that scheme honourable to God, which 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



supposeth him to have created a free-will in rational 
agents, which is beyond his power to keep dependant 
upon himself, or manage for answering any fixed 
purpose? Where is the immutability of God, if he 
be obliged to alter his schemes as the free-will of man- 
kind shall please to deport itself? Is this the stand- 
ing of his counsel and the doing of all his pleasure ? 
Where is the boasted universality of his benevolence, 
unless he hath provided a Saviour for devils as well 
as for men ; and given them, who are his creatures, 
and no less excellent, an equal throne for their eternal 
salvation? Where was his wisdom or equity; and 
where his love to his eternal Son, if he took pleasure 
to bruise him, to make his soul an offering for the 
sin of all mankind — for the sin of those who, at the 
very time, were in hell, suffering the due reward of 
their deeds ; and for millions who, if omniscient, he 
forsaw would follow them thither in due time ; or to 
make him throw away his life for men upon the im- 
probable supposition, that such as were in the flesh, 
in their natural state, should please God with their 
faith and repentance ? Where is his w T isdom or 
power, his kindness or candour towards us, if his 
choice of us to eternal life, if the death of his Son 
for us, if the striving of his Spirit with us, have their 
whole efficacy in our favours suspended upon this im- 
possible condition, — that our heart, deceitful above 
all things and desperately wicked, our carnal mind, at 
enmity against God, and which is not subject to his 
law, neither indeed can be, shall graciously convert 



88 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



itself, and lend its assistance to the Deity for the se- 
curing of our eternal happiness, and effectuating that 
which was too hard for the Lord ? 

Where, my Arminian friends, is the comfort, the 
blessedness for men, of which you speak? If I am 
deeply sensible of the corruption of my heart, what 
comfort can it be to me, that God will fix his choice 
on me, — will render the death of his Son the price of 
my eternal life, — will render the striving of his Spirit 
prevalent to my eternal salvation, if I perform the 
(to me infinitely impossible) condition of faith and re- 
pentance, persevered in unto the end of my life? 
What, though Jehovah hath said to my soul, I have 
loved thee with an everlasting love ; his loving kind- 
ness may endure but for a moment, and the everlast- 
ing covenant of his peace be removed! What, sup- 
pose he began to do me good, he may not be able or 
willing to finish it ! he may break his everlasting cove- 
nant, ordered in all things and sure, and turn away 
from doing me good ! What, suppose he hath written 
my name in heaven, in the Lamb's book of life — it is 
less tenacious than my parish register : my name may 
be blotted out ere to-morrow. Suppose Christ hath 
loved me, and given himself to the death for me, it 
is no more than he did for millions at that instant ( in 
hell, and for millions that shall be eternally damned. 
His death can therefore be no more comfortable to 
me than my creation ; and yet perhaps it had been 
better for me that I had never been born. Suppose 
the striving of the Holy Spirit should, in some happy 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



moment, have the concurrence, or at least the per- 
mission, of my free-will to change my nature, and im- 
plant in me gracious principles ; they are put in a 
bag with holes, and may be lost ere to-morrow ! Sup- 
pose I had taken my place on the celestial throne, 
perhaps, by an inadvertant slip of my free-will, I may 
be tumbled headlong into hell, as multitudes of angels 
once were. 

As good methinks, be a reprobate according to the 
Calvinist scheme, than an elected person according to 
the Arminian ! According to the Calvinist, God 
will save no man, but in consistency with his own 
purpose. According to the Arminian, God neither 
will nor can save any man, without the permission, 
the assistance, of the man's free-will ; or without our 
performance of an infinitely impossible condition of 
true faith and gospel repentance, produced from a 
carnal mind at enmity against God ? 

According to the Calvinist, the divine purpose lays 
no bar in the w 7 ay of our free-will's performing its 
duty ; and whosoever believeth shall be saved. Ac- 
cording to the Arminian, it is not one act of believing, 
nor perhaps a thousand acts of faith, repentance, and 
sincere obedience, that will fix my state! Alas! 
miserable comforter, and physician of no value! 

Doth the Arminian scheme promote the earnest 
study of true holiness ? Let experience speak. How- 
many in Britain suppose themselves capable to repent 
and believe at pleasure, and that Christ died for all ; 
at least, if they be sincere, and do the best they can ? 



90 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



yet, what students of holiness are these ? Let hell 
blush at the thought ! How many of them blaspheme 
as devils, and tempt their fellows to abomination! 
How many riot in drunkenness, gluttony, and whore- 
dom ! How many are ignorant of the first principles 
of our holy religion, and cannot so much as rest in 
the literal knowledge of the law ! How many live as 
brute beasts, un thoughtful whether they be possessed 
of immortal souls ! In what thousands of closets and 
families, the stated worship of our Maker, is equally 
observed as in the stable or sty ! — Let reason show 
her opinion. According to the Arminian scheme, 
God cannot help me much if he would. He cannot 
make me willing in the days of his power, or able to 
serve him in the beauties of holiness ; but can merely 
strive with my conscience, and try to sooth my free- 
will into a good humour. 

The law of God indeed binds me to holiness, but 
that is the very case with devils, whose good works I 
suppose to be but few. What benefits I have received 
from God are so insignificant and common, that I 
scarce owe him distinguished thanks. His choice of 
me, the death of his Son for me, and the striving of 
his Spirit with me, and even his bestowal of grace 
upon me, do not avail, unless my free-will take heed 
to herself ; they cannot for a moment secure me from 
hell. What pleasure my free-will, if left to herself, 
can take in the ways of holiness, I cannot conceive. 
When my eternal life is in danger every moment, 
how can I draw near to God with a true heart in the 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 91 

■4 

full assurance of faith ? how can I be steadfast and 
immoveable, always abounding in the work of the 
Lord, knowing that my labour shall not be in vain in 
the Lord? If I attempt to give thanks, what if an 
entrance into hell turn my song into howling? If I 
owe my happiness more to the management of my own 
free-will, than to God's election, Christ's death, and 
the striving of his Spirit, why should I deny myself, 
have no confidence in the flesh, but rejoice in Christ 
Jesus ? In heaven I owe no more praise to God or 
the Lamb, than those in the lake that burneth with 
fire and brimstone. Let my song then be not, 
u Worthy is the Lamb," &c, but u Worthy art thou, 
my free-will, to receive honour and glory, and do- 
minion and blessing, for thou hast taken care, and 
hast redeemed me to God. Salvation to our free-will 
that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb!" 



IX. — The Parliament dissolved. 

Where strife and contention are, there is confusion 
and every evil work. The late dissolution of par- 
liament, no way that I know of, affects my private 
interest. Scarce any such as I could have freedom 
to choose for my representative, viz., "able men, 
fearing God, and hating covetousness," will be turned 
out, and perhaps as few brought in, by the change. 
But w T hen I consider the terrible scenes of deceit, 



92 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



bribery, drunkenness, ignorant and profane swearing 
or perjury, that will be thereby occasioned, it sinks 
my spirits, and I look on the dissolution as a means 
of hastening our ruin. Alas, what numerous, what 
heavy curses of Jehovah, the King of nations, the 
wickedness committed in the electioneering work 
will draw down ! And what court, what kingdom, 
can prosper under so many fearful curses of almighty 
God! It is neither N. nor F. nor P. that I either 
fear or trust, but a long-provoked, and exceedingly 
angry God. Who may stand before him if once he 
be angry ? Who knows the power of his wrath ? If 
he be against us, who can be for us? Till our mad- 
ness and profligacy in diversions, elections, and many 
things else, and the fearful murder, deceit, and rob- 
bery, committed in our East India trade, and our 
hatred and contempt of Christ and his gospel, be 
turned into weeping, mourning, and girding with 
sackcloth, I cannot expect any blessed prosperity for 
Britain. Nay, I am astonished that God, in his 
infinite patience, hath borne so long with us, and 
hath not dissolved us from being a nation. 

But turn thine eyes, O my soul, to a much more 
solemn scene. In a little, our lower world shall be 
dissolved ; the heavens shall pass away with a great 
noise ; the elements shall melt with fervent heat ; and 
the earth and the works therein shall be burnt up. 
The great archangel shall sound his awful trumpet, 
calling all the quick and the dead to their last judg- 
ment. Not one ambitious wretch shall then post 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



93 



through countries, to secure votes for himself or his 
friend. No carousing and drunkenness, no unruly or 
selfish polls, no frantic shouts of carnal joy, shall take 
place. But graves shall open ; seas, earth, and hell, 
shall give up their dead. While thousands of angels 
fly every where, to gather God's elect from the four 
winds of heaven ; millions unnumbered of ransomed 
men shall be caught up to meet their Lord Christ in 
the air, and to be set down with him on his great 
white throne. Meanwhile, countless multitudes of 
those who had pushed themselves into places of power 
and trust in church and state, and of those who had 
helped them forward, shall be left behind on the 
earth, weeping, wailing, and gnashing their teeth, — 
cursing the day and means of their advancement, as 
well as of their birth ; and that they, for a paltry 
bribe of money, friendship, or liquor, contributed to 
set up a manifest enemy of the Lord and his Christ, 
to be his deputy in the state, or ambassador in the 
church. But hark ! how the King eternal, by his 
final sentence, 44 Come, ye blessed of my Father, in- 
herit the kingdom prepared for you from the foun- 
dation of the world;" and, 44 Depart from me, ye 
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil 
and his angels," dissolves the vast assembly of man- 
kind. And 44 these (wicked) shall go away into 
everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life 
eternal." Ah, what principalities and powers, kings, 
nobles, and other rulers, shall then be cast down into 
tenfold depths of destruction ! — how political com- 
i 



94 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



binations shall be turned into mutual hatred and 
rage ! — how jovial roarings shall be changed into 
dreadful howlings ! and bribes of every form shall, 
like fire, torment the consciences of both givers and 
receivers, and that to all eternity! 

And, my soul, what shall be my lot in that great 
day of the Lord ? Shall I appear with Christ in 
glory? Shall I sit at his right hand? Shall I, 
clothed with his own righteousness and grace, at- 
tend him from his judgment-seat into his heavenly 
palace ? Shall I be for ever with the Lord, and en- 
ter into his joy? Shall I for ever sing hosannas to 
the Son of David, u Hosanna in the highest ? sal- 
vation to our God that sitteth on the throne and to 
the Lamb ?" O grace, grace, grace, unto it! Not 
unto us, not unto me, but to thy name, O Lord, be 
the glory, for thy mercy and thy truth's sake. 



X.—The Grand Poll 

Terrible confusion having happened among man- 
kind, their original state was totally dissolved by the 
great King, the Lord of hosts. It was therefore 
necessary that they should be represented and directed 
by a new head. Two candidates of very different 
characters, appeared to solicit their votes. Beelze- 
bub, a prodigal rake, who, in a few days of his youth, 
had spent his large patrimony, and rendered himself 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



9.5 



and many millions of his friends absolutely bankrupt 
and miserable ; but who, nevertheless, became more 
and more proud, and, by his impudence, flattery, 
falsehood, and other arts, gained the character of a 
most fashionable and prevalent orator, was the one. 
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the most high 
God, whose abilities for management, and his fidelity 
as well as his true love to God and men, were abso- 
lutely infinite ; and who had the tongue of the learned, 
to speak words that are spirit and life to every at- 
tentive hearer, was the other. 

An assembly of some hundred thousand millions 
being convened, though not all precisely at the same 
time, Beelzebub had the presumption first to ascend 
the hustings, and, with a fawning smile and loud 
cry, begged their favourable attention. The whole 
assembly, except a few, heard him several hours 
without so much as a wandering eye or thought, 
or the very least impatience. He harangued them 
to this purpose : — 

" My dear princes, noblemen, gentlemen, clergy- 
men, and commons, with your respective princesses 
and ladies, you cannot but be deeply sensible of my 
near relation to you as your common parent, and 
of my constant abode and familiar condescensions 
among you. My zeal for your present established 
constitution hath, since our first connexion, been 
steady and ardent. In every possible form, I have 
constantly contended for your unlimited liberty, both 
religious and civil ; I have even permitted you to 



96 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



comply as far with the doctrines and laws of mine 
adversary as can consist with your natural inclina- 
tions, or can tend to promote your true pleasure, 
honour, and wealth, in this world. For your mani- 
fest advantage, I have contended for and encouraged 
your unallayed rejoicing in the days of your youth, 
and your unbounded liberty to fulfil the desires of 
the flesh and mind, and to walk in the ways of your 
heart, and in the sight of your eyes ; and to live in 
a truly easy, cheerful, genteel, and fashionable man- 
ner, in the lust of your flesh, the lust of your eye, 
and the pride of life — withholding nothing from 
yourself that your soul desireth. Your small ser- 
vices to me, I have been always ready to reward 
with the riches, crowns, or kingdoms of this world. 
I have almost racked my wits, and expended my 
treasures, in inventing for you new forms of manly 
principles, exquisite pleasures, exalted honours, and 
immense riches, that I might cause you to enjoy a 
very heaven upon earth. Instead of the mean, dull 
drudgery of prayer, ranting of psalms, searching of 
bibles, and hearing of canting harangues concerning 
Christ and eternity, heaven and hell, I have largely 
furnished you with a set of customary oaths, excel- 
lent novels and romances, stage plays, puppet shows, 
masquerades, balls, assemblies, merry carousals, pro- 
cessions, horse-races, cock-matches, cards and dice, 
and many other diversions, infinitely delightful. By 
the care of myself and my servants, the most of you 
have the good sense to discern that that pitiful 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



07 



scribble, called the bible, is but an arrant imposture, 
whose principles are a disgrace to human nature ; 
and its laws, unless as they forbid gross thefts in 
civilized nations, an intolerable burden. To render 
your minds as composed as possible, we have also 
irrefragably proved that hell is a mere bugbear, 
scarcely believed by one preacher of a hundred ; and 
that, if there be a heaven or eternity, and a God, he 
is naturally obliged to exert himself to his uttermost 
in making all his creatures happy ; and so, instead 
of damning any of you, must bestow upon you an 
everlasting happiness, answerable to your natural 
appetites. Let therefore your so richly deserved 
gratitude determine each of you to support me on 
this important occasion ; the which if you do, I so- 
lemnly promise, on my word of honour, to exert 
myself for your true and present welfare, to the 
very utmost of my power. 

" My only opponent scarcely deserves your or my 
notice. With pleasure, my lords and gentlemen, I 
know that you have the good sense to hold him in 
sovereign contempt. Most of you never so much 
as heard of him till this very day. His own account 
of himself, if it had any truth in it, represents him 
as absolutely despicable -a man of sorrows ; — a 
worm, and no man ; — mean in his birth ; debased, 
poor, and hated in his life, and infamous in his 
death ! Not learned doctors, princes, noblemen, or 
gentry, but some infatuated, or pitifully weak dregs 
of mankind, have ever marked the least regard for 
I 2 



98 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



him. And indeed, none in his wits will ever prefer 
one who allots nothing but a life of trouble and tor- 
ment to his friends ; requires them to deny them- 
selves, and threatens eternal damnation for the most 
trifling deviation from his absurd commands." 

This flattering speech was received with such 
multitudes of loud huzzas, that earth and hell rang 
again with No Jesus Christ, but Beelzebub for ever ! 
Beelzebub for ever ! Beelzebub for ever ! 

Notwithstanding this horrid affront, Jesus Christ, 
in infinite compassion to the multitude, mounted the 
hustings, and in the most solemn and serious manner 
begged their attention. But such was their hubbub 
and outrageous clamour, that, had not his voice 
been as of the Almighty when he speaketh, he had 
got no hearing at all. And indeed, till about the 
evening tide, almost no man regarded him. He ad- 
dressed such as did not run off, in this manner, with 
the tear in his eye : — 

4 4 To you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the 
sons of men. How often would I have gathered you 
as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, 
and ye would not ! Ye have been called to the Most 
High, and none would exalt him. I have called, and 
ye refused ; I stretched out my hand, and no man 
regarded. Ye have set at nought all my counsel, 
and would none of my reproof ; ye would have none 
of me. What shall I do unto you, O sinners, O 
children of disobedience, who are of your father the 
devil, and the lusts of your father ye do ! How shall 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



I give you up ! How shall I make you eternal mo- 
numents of my wrath, as Admah, and as Zeboim ! 
Mine heart is turned within me, and my repentings 
are kindled together. Ah ! you have destroyed 
yourselves, but in me is your help. How long, 
you simple ones, will you love simplicity ; and you 
scorners, delight in scorning ; and ye fools, hate 
knowledge? Turn ye at my reproof; behold, I 
pour out my Spirit upon you, and make known my 
words unto you. Hear, O my people, and I will 
speak; I will testify against you: I am God, even 
thy God. And, as I live, saith the Lord, I have no 
pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that they 
should turn and live ; turn ye, turn ye ; why will ye 
die ? What is a man profited if he gain the whole 
world, and lose his own soul ? or, what shall a man 
give in exchange for his soul ? In my own, and my 
Father's name, I beseech you to be reconciled unto 
God ; for he hath made me, who knew no sin, to be 
sin ; to be a curse for you, that you might be made 
the righteousness of God, and for ever blessed with 
all spiritual blessings in me. God so loved the world 
that he gave me, his only-begotten Son, that whoso- 
ever believeth in me, might not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life. He hath sanctified, sealed, and sent me 
into the world, to seek and to save that which was 
lost : hath sent me forth in the likeness of sinful flesh, 
that I might give my life a ransom for many ; hath 
sent me, a Saviour, and a great one, to deliver you — 
to give you repentance and remission of sins, and 



100 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



bless you in destroying the works of the devil, and 
turning every one of you from his iniquities ; hath 
given me for a covenant to the people, a light unto 
the Gentiles, and his salvation to the ends of the 
earth. Having loved you with an everlasting love, 
I, from eternity, covenanted for you as your surety, 
and undertook to pay all your infinite debt to an of- 
fended God. In the fulness of time I became your 
brother, born for your adversity — God in your nature, 
as well as on your side. In your stead I myself bore 
your sins, and all the curses, punishment, and death, 
due to them ; finished transgression, and made an 
end of sin ; and fulfilled all righteousness required 
by the broken law ; nay, magnified the law, and made 
it honourable. Having thus loved you, and given 
myself for you to God as a sacrifice of a sweet-smel- 
ling savour, a propitiation for the sins of the world, 
I was raised again for your justification, ascended up 
on high, and received gifts for men ; yea, for the re- 
bellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among 
them ; had all things, all power in heaven and earth, 
delivered unto me of my Father, that I might give 
eternal life to as many as I will ; was exalted to his 
right hand, that, by continual intercession, I might 
be able to save to the uttermost all them that come 
unto God by me. Let, therefore, all this multitude 
know assuredly, that God hath made me, Jesus, 
whom ye have despised and crucified, both Lord and 
Christ; that I am made of God unto you, ignorant, 
guilty, polluted, and enslaved sinners, wisdom and 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



101 



righteousness, sanctification and redemption, that ye 
may be saved in me with an everlasting salvation. 
Look therefore unto me, and be ye saved from every 
plague and misery, and to every form or degree of 
true happiness, in time or eternity ; for I am God, 
and there is none else ; a just God and a Saviour ; 
there is none beside me ; no salvation in any other — 
no other name under heaven given among men by 
which you can be saved. Incline your ear and come 
unto me : hear, and your soul shall live ; and I will 
make with you an everlasting covenant, even the sure 
mercies of David ; abundant pardon and acceptance 
through my blood ; adoption into my family ; new- 
ness of heart, in conformity to my image ; comfort 
in fellowship with me ; and God himself as your God. 
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest. My son, give me 
thy heart. If any man thirst, have any need, let him 
come unto me, and I will give him to drink of that 
water, which shall be in him a well springing up unto 
everlasting life. If any man hear my voice, I will 
give to him eternal life, and he shall never perish, 
nor shall any be able to pluck him out of mine or my 
Father's hand. For this is the will of him that sent 
me, that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth 
on him, may have everlasting life. All that the Fa- 
ther giveth me shall come to me ; and him that 
cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. Now is 
the accepted time ; now is the day of salvation. 
Harden not your hearts. How shall ye escape if ye 



102 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



neglect so great salvation ! if ye tread under foot 
the Son of God, and count the blood of the covenant, 
wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and do 
despite unto the Spirit of grace !" 

He pronounced these, and many other like words, 
with such amazing earnestness, power, and life, that 
multitudes, even of those that had most heartily voted 
for Beelzebub, recanted, and, with great melting of 
heart, cried out, Behold, we come unto thee, for 
44 thou art the Lord our God: — God my Saviour — 
my master — my Lord and my God ! O Lord, our 
God ! other lords beside thee have had dominion 
over us ; but by thee only will we make mention of 
thy name. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of 
all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world 
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Thine I am, 
O Jesus, and on thy side, thou Son of God ! Blessed 
be he that cometh in the name of the Lord to save 
us ; Hosanna to the Son of David ! Hosanna in the 
highest !" 

Beelzebub, nevertheless, attempted to support him- 
self by his numbers : but, his cause being tried, it 
was found that all the fair and legal votes were for 
Jesus Christ. And Beelzebub, and all his obstinate 
adherents, were, for their villanies, committed to 
perpetual imprisonment, in a lake which burns with 
fire and brimstone, where they have no rest day nor 
night, but are tormented in the presence of the holy 
angels, and of the Lamb. 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



103 



XI. — State of Britain's Debt to God. 

Finding that, amidst all their pretensions of regard 
to the British constitution, and concern for the in- 
debted and dangerous state of the nation, neither old 
nor new ministry had in the least adverted, to the 
extensive accounts between us and our God, I pre- 
sumed to give them some (alas ! too little) serious 
consideration ; and find that we stand infinitely deep 
in debt to his rich mercy, for favours innumerable 
received from him, and to his avenging justice, for 
innumerable provocations committed against him. 
Of the first sort are, 

I. The infinitely precious blessings of redemption 
through Christ: such as, (1.) God's gracious thoughts 
in his electing purpose and covenant of grace ; Psalm 
xxxvi. 23 ; xl. 5 ; lxxxix. 3, 4, 19 — 37 ; Prov. viii. 
23—31 ; Isa. liii. 10 ; 2 Tim. i. 9 ; Tit. i. 2. (2.) 
God's preparing the way for his Son's coming into 
our world, by visions, types, promises, and marvel- 
lous providences ; Heb. i. 1 ; ix.,x. 1; xi. 10; Col. 

ii. 17; Actsx. 43; Rom. iii. 21. (3.) The actual 
appearance of the Son of God in our nature ; Isa. 
vii. 14 ; ix. 6 ; xi. 1 ; Jer. xxiii. 5 ; xxxi. 22 ; Zech. 

iii. 8; Matt. i. 17—25; Gal. iv. 4, 5 ; 1 Tim. iii. 
16 ; John i. 14. (4.) The great God in our nature 
made under the broken covenant of works, fulfilling 
all righteousness of obedience and satisfaction for 
men ; 2 Cor. viii. 9; v. 21 ; Matt. iii. 15 ; v. 18 ; 



104 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



xx. 28 ; Luke xxiv. 26 ; Dan ix, 24 ; Gal. iii. 15 ; 
Eph. v. 2; 1 Pet. i. 18, 19; ii. 24; iii. 18; 1 
John ii. 1,2 ; iv. 3 ; v. 8 ; iv. 9, 10. (5.) God's 
accepting of this righteousness of his Son in our 
stead, and rewarding him for it to our everlasting 
advantage ; 1 Tim. iii. 16 ; Isa. 1. 8 ; Iii. 13 — 15 ; 
liii. 10—12 ; Rom. iv. 25 ; Psalm lxviii. 18 ; Col. 
i. 19 ; Phil. iv. 19 ; 1 Pet. i. 20, 21 ; Heb. ii. 10 ; 

iv. 14 — 16. (6.) Christ's laying out himself in the 
whole of the work of his glorified state, to promote 
our eternal salvation, by continual intercession, in- 
struction, and government; John xiv. 19; Rom. 
viii. 32 — 34 ; Heb. vii. 25 ; John xiv. 26 ; xv. 
26; xvi. 7—14; Matt, xxviii. 18—20; Eph. iv. 
10—13; Psalm ex. 1— 3. (7.) The publication and 
free offers of Christ, and his purchased salvation to 
sinful men, in the gospel ; Mark xvi. 15 ; 1 Tim. 
i. 15; iii. 8; Eph. iii. 8; i. 13; Acts xiii. 26; 
Rom. xv. 19; Col. i. 26, 27. (8.) God's erecting 
a church or new-covenant society of sinful men on 
earth ; Gen. xvii. 7 ; Exod. xix. 5, 6 ; Matt. xvi. 
18; Eph. ii. 18—22; iv. 8—13; Rev. viii. 9; xi. 
15. (9.) God's blessing men with all spiritual bless- 
ings, regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctifica- 
tion, and comfort in Christ, on this earth ; Eph. i. 
5 ; ii. 5 ; 1 Cor. i. 30 ; Col. ii. 10 ; iii. 11 ; 2 Cor. 

v. 17—21; Ezek. xxxvi. 25—29. (10.) The eter- 
nal glorification of men through Christ in heaven ; 
Eph. ii. 4—7 ; John xii. 26 ; xiv. 2, 3 ; xvii. 24 ; 
Psalm lxxiii. 24,26; xvi. 10, 11 ; xvii. 15; 1 Thess. 
iv. 17; Isa. xiv. 17; lx. 19; Rev. xxi., xxii. 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



105 



II. In subordination to the above great and pre- 
cious blessings of redemption, there are multitudes 
of personal mercies, for which every one in Britain 
doth or ought to stand indebted to God: as, (1.) 
Being born in a land of gospel light ; Prov. xxix. 
18; Eph. ii. 12, 19. (2.) Being descended of godly 
parents; Exod. xv. 1. (3.) Being early and seriously 
devoted to the Lord, in baptism, and in often re- 
peated fervent prayers ; Psalm xxii. 10. (4.) Early 
instruction in the knowledge of Christian principles 
by parents, masters, ministers, or others; Prov. i., 
vii., xxxi ; Gen. viii. 19 ; Deut. vi. 6, 7 ; 2 Tim. iii. 
15. (5.) God's providential hedging-up of his elect 
to serious concern for their souls ; Hos. ii. 6, 7, 14 ; 
Ezek. xx. 37 ; Lam. iii. 27 — 29 ; Job xxxiii. 15 
— 30. (6.) His convictions of our conscience and 
allurements of our affections, by the strivings of his 
Spirit; I Samuel ii. 26; iii. 1—10; 2 Chron. 
xxxiv. 3. (7.) Our being brought into a state of 
saving union to, and fellowship with, Christ; 1 Kings 
xiv. 13 ; 1 Cor. xv. 8 ; Gal. i. 15, 16 ; John iii. 3, 5. 
(8.) Our preservation from offensive stumbling in, 
or out of, the Lord's way ; Psalm lxxi. 17, 18 ; Isa. 
xlvi. 3, 4. (9.) Gracious visits from Christ and his 
Spirit to our souls ; Gen. xlviii. 3 ; Psalm xxxiv. 6; 
xl. 1 — 3 ; cxvi. 1 — 7. (10.) Well-grounded hopes 
of eternal life ; 2 Tim. i. 12 ; iv. 7, 8 ; Psalm lxxiii. 
24—26. 

III. We are indebted to him for multitudes of fa- 
mily mercies: as, (1.) His wonderfully preserving the 

K 



106 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



members, notwithstanding their many dangers, par- 
ticularly in childhood ; Acts xvii. 28 ; Psalm lxvi. 9. 
(2.) His kind maintenance or restoration of health ; 
Exod. xv. 26. (3.) His providing agreeable rela- 
tions, husbands, wives, parents, children, servants, 
neighbours ; Psalm cvii. 41 ; lxviii. 6 ; cxliv. 12. 
(4.) Peace and order in families ; Prov. xxxi. (5.) 
Piety and devotion, that make the house a church ; 
Psalm ci.; Josh.xxiv. 15; Gen. xviii. 19; 2 John iv. ; 
Phil. ii. ; Col. iv. 15; Rom. xvi. 5; Acts x. 2; 
xvi. 34. (6.) Provision of convenient food, raiment, 
and other temporal accomodations; Deut. viii. 16; 
Isa. xxxiii. 17 ; Acts xiv 17 ; xvii. 25 ; 1 Tim vi. 
17. (7.) Protection from dangers ; Deut. xxxiii. 
25 — 29 ; Psalm xci. 1 — 10. (8.) Seasonable, and 
especially sanctified, afflictions ; Psalm xciv. 12 ; 
Heb. xii. 5 — 11; Rev. iii. 19. (9.) A pleasant pro- 
spect of a seed for the Lord, Christ trained up in the 
family ; Isa. xliv. 3 — 5 ; Gen. xvii. 7 ; Jer. xxxi. 1 ; 
Isa. lix. 21. (10.) When deaths in families are not 
only so ordered, as to increase love and friendship 
among the survivors, but even to awaken their con- 
sciences, and stir them up to seek and swallow the 
Lord ; 2 Kings iv. 1, with Isa. lvii. 1. 

IV; We are indebted to him for a multitude of 
public national mercies : as, (1 .) His ancient gracious 
purposes, and his many express promises, concerning 
the islands and the ends of the earth ; which we now 
see to have peculiarly respected Britain ; and on 
which we may plead for mercy in every time of need ; 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



107 



Isa. xxiv. 15 ; xlii. 4, 10, 12 ; xlix. 1 ; li. 5 ; lx. 
9; lxvi. 19 ; xlv. 22 ; Psalm xxii. 27—31 ; Ixv. 5 ; 
lxxii. 8, 10, with 2 Pet. i. 4 ; Heb. iv. 1. (2.) His 
early introduction of the gospel of salvation into 
Britain, about forty years after Christ's death ; and, 
not long after, into the north parts of it, notwith- 
standing its distance from Jerusalem, and notwith- 
standing the poverty, and dreadful barbarity, and 
savage customs of our ancestors; Isa. lxvi. J 9. 
(3.) His thereafter continuing the gospel light and 
Christian church in this island, notwithstanding 
cruel persecution by the heathen inhabitants, and 
notwithstanding the dreadful and long-continued ra- 
vages of the Saxons, and all the craft, cruelty, error, 
profligacy, idolatry, and superstition of the papists, 
for more than fourteen hundred years ; Psalm cxxxii. 
13, 14. (4.) His reformation of the country from 
Popery, about the middle of the sixteenth century, 
notwithstanding all the exorbitant power and wealth 
of the Romish clergy, and all the gross ignorance, 
superstitious inclinations, and profligacy of the people, 
— and notwithstanding all the caprice of king Henry 
VIII. , and the cruelty of queen Mary in England, 
and all that the house of Guise and courts of France 
and Scotland could do to oppose it; Zech. iv. 6, 7. 
While the more strict and faithful party in England 
were marvellously supported under the persecution 
which they suffered from queen Elizabeth and her 
agents, those in Scotland were enabled, amidst great 
poverty and manifold oppositions, to carry the Re- 



108 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



formation of their church to a remarkable degree of 
purity and order ; Deut. xxxiii. 25 ; 2 Chron. xiv. 
11. (6.) Notwithstanding all that king James, and 
Charles, his son, could do, by alterations of the 
Scotch church, by correspondence with popes, by 
courtship or marriage with papists, by authorizing 
sports on the Lord's day, by high commissions, and 
by imprisonments, banishments, or tortures, he en- 
abled his faithful ministers and people to cleave to 
his truths, and made even their persecutions a means 
of their subsequent deliverance ; Rev. xi. 3 ; Dan. 
xi. 32, 33. (7.) Amidst no small confusions, civil 
wars, and, no doubt, many selfish designs of political 
managers, he, between 1638 and 1660, not only 
laid the foundations of our civil liberties, but also 
furnished the nations with a multitude of pious and 
laborious ministers, whose faithful preaching of the 
gospel he blessed to the conviction, conversion, or 
edification, of perhaps millions of souls ; and pro- 
duced such an appearance of serious godliness and 
devotion, throughout the most of the island, as was 
never before nor since known in it ; Dan. ix. 25 ; 
Hos. ii. 6, 7, 14 ; v. 15 ; vi. 1—3. (8.) Notwith- 
standing all the shocking profaneness, blasphemous 
oaths and bonds, and cruel persecutions, introduced 
by king Charles II., and continued by James, his 
brother, the Lord enabled multitudes of his people 
to be faithful unto fines, imprisonments, banish- 
ments, tortures, and death ; Zech. x. 8, 9 ; Matt, 
x. 19; John xvi. 33; Zeph. iii. 12, 18, 19. (9.) 



The rev. John brown. 109 

At the Revolution, when all things were prepared 
for the establishment of Popery and slavery, he 
wrought a marvellous deliverance, and made the 
very seas, winds, and storms, as well as a branch of 
our enslavers' roots, to fight for the re-establishment 
of our Protestant religion and liberties ; Deut. 
xxxii. 36 ; Psalm xciv. 12 — 15 ; cxxxv. 14. (10.) 
When Popish pretenders to the crown, by assassina- 
tions, invasions, and rebellions, of Jacobites, have 
repeatedly attempted to overthrow our religion and 
liberties, he hath always defeated their attempts, and 
made them destructive to themselves ; Isa. vii. 5 — 
7 ; viii. 12, 15. (11.) When the gospel doctrines 
of the free grace of God, reigning through the im- 
puted righteousness of Christ, were fearfully buried, 
perverted, or mixed, by the general prevalence of 
Arminian or Neominian errors, the Lord, by means 
of Mr. Hervey, and others, in England, and by means 
of Boston, the Seceders, and others, in Scotland, re- 
vived and spread them into many dark places of the 
islands, to the conversion and edification of multi- 
tudes ; Ezra ix. 8, 9 ; Isa. lix. 19. (12.) The late 
peace, after a most ruinous, and, perhaps, on all 
hands, a most unnecessary and sinful war, he not 
only granted us, but mercifully timed it for the pre- 
servation of many thousands from perishing by the 
famine ; the corn provided for the army, supplying 
many in want ; and the ships which brought victuals 
from abroad, having a free and safe passage. Mean- 
while, a generosity in providing for the poor, never 
k 2 



1 10 LIFE AND REMAINS OF 

before known, at least, in North Britain, remarkably 
prevailed; Gen. xxii. 14. 

Hath Britain rendered unto the Lord according 
to these, and innumerable other benefits which he 
hath bestowed upon her ? No ; but by crimes in- 
numerable, and highly aggravated, hath plunged 
herself into an infinite debt to his avenging justice 
by, (1.) General misimprovement of his mercies, in 
forgetting, undervaluing, and contemning them ; 
by abusing them as means or occasions of wicked- 
ness, and spurning away and treading under foot 
such as are of a spiritual nature ; Psalm cvi. 13. 
(2.) Gross atheism and ignorance of God and of his 
word and works, that neither law nor gospel, nor 
the most common and necessary points of truth, are 
understood or studied by millions; Eph. iv. 18; 
Isa. xxvii. 11 ; Hos. iv. 1, 2, 6. (3.) Proud and 
unbelieving contempt and rejection of Jesus Christ, 
and his great salvation offered in the gospel ; John 
i. 11 ; Heb. ii. 3 ; x. 29. (4.) Contempt and ne- 
glect of the precious ordinances of the gospel, not 
receiving them, not observing and keeping them 
pure and entire, as means of communion with, and 
conformity to, Christ; but, instead thereof, living as 
brute beasts, without either secret or private daily 
worship of God, and even much absenting from 
his public worship, fearfully profaning his sacra- 
ments ; Isa. lxiii. 22 ; Jer. x. 25 ; Heb. x. 25. 
(5.) Fearful profanation of God's name, by swearing 
of broad or minced oaths in common conversation, 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



Ill 



and by imposing unnecessary or sinful oaths, or by dis- 
pensing and taking these or other oaths in a profane, 
light, and careless manner; Exod. xx. 7; Zech. v. 3, 
4; Jer. xxviii. 10; Hos. iv. 2; x. 4; and by breach 
of sacramental and other solemn vows to God ; Prov. 
xxx. 25. (6.) Notorious profanation of the sabbath, 
in omitting the religious exercises of it, and spending 
it as a season of idleness, wickedness, or worldly 
employments and recreations ; Ezek. xxii. 26 ; Jer. 
xvii. 27. (7.) General impiety of rulers, both in 
church and state. Civil rulers are not, as they ought 
to be, men fearing God and hating covetousness, 
Exod. xviii. 21 ; but such as by bribes, influence, or 
the like, can push themselves into honour ; and too 
often clergymen are such as run unsent by Christ, 
and neither understand nor love the gospel of his 
grace, nor have conversation becoming it ; but addict 
themselves to plays and romances, instead of their 
bible ; have scarcely a shadow of the daily worship of 
God either in secret or in their families, but spend 
much of their time in improper diversions, or in 
familiarity with graceless great men ; Isa. i. 21, 23 ; 
ix. 16; lvi. 10 — 12; Jer. v. 5, 7, 8 ; Ezek. xxix. 
24—28; Mic. iii. ; Hos. vi. 1. (8.) Shocking mur- 
der of multitudes of precious souls under Charles II. 
and James his brother, — of infants by unnatural pa- 
rents, — of duellers, by venting their pride, — of, I 
suppose, about twelve or fourteen millions of poor 
heathens, in carrying on the East India settlements 
and the African slave-trade, —and of I know not how 



112 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



many millions of precious souls, by the bad examples 
of magistrates, ministers, parents, and masters, and 
their carelessness about those under their respective 
charges ; Hos. iv. 2 ; Ezek. xxii. 3, 6, 9, 12, 13, 45 ; 
xxiv. 7, 23 ; Matt, xxiii. 34, 35. (9.) Drunkenness 
and gluttony; many making their eating and drink- 
ing, and their care about them, the principal business 
of their life ; and even wasting their precious time, 
and ruining their bodily and intellectual constitution 
thereby; Prov. xxiii. 21, 29, 30; Eccl. x. 16, 17; 
Isa. xxviii. I. (10.) Uncleanness, fornication, adul- 
tery, &c. ; many, particularly those of rank, rather 
seeming to prosecute and glory in such wickedness, 
as an honourable accomplishment, while magistrates 
generally neglect to punish, and church rulers to 
censure, the same; Hos. iv. 2, 11 ; vii. 4 ; Mai. iii. 
5; Jer. v. 7 — 9. (H.) Dishonesty, theft, robbery, 
prodigality, fraudulent bankruptcies, over-reaching 
in bargains, oppression, extortion, bribery, and the 
like; Hos. iv. 2 ; Zech. v. 4. Mic. ii. , iii. , vii. 2— 5 ; 
Isa. i. 23; Ezek. xxii. 12, 27; Amos v. 12; viii. 4, 
5, 6. (12.) Lying, falsehood, deceit, dissimulation, 
unfaithfulness to promises or trusts, reviling, back- 
biting, slander, perjury, misrepresentation of causes 
in judicature, &c. ; Hos. iv. 2 ; Jer. ix. 2 — 8 ; Isa. 
lix. 4, 8, 13, 14, 15 : Mic. vii. 2—5. (13.) Cove- 
tousness, envy, uncharitableness, discontentment, and 
an inordinate inclination and study to push ourselves 
into the honours, property, or trade, of our neigh- 
bours; Jer. v. 8; Mic. v. 2; Hab. ii. 9, 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



113 



These are a few of the leading articles of Britain's 
debt to her God. The value must be stated from the 
greatness of God, the holiness and authority of his 
law, and worth of his Son, and the infinite impor- 
tance of an eternity either in heaven or hell. How 
infatuated then must we be, in making such work 
about hundreds of millions owing to men, and yet 
overlooking so many infinite sums owing to our Ma- 
ker and Judge, and neglecting to have them happily 
discharged by an application of Jesus' blood, which, 
purchaseth all mercies, and cleanseth from all sin ! 



XII.— -Britain's Sole Preservative. 



Let our political managers project what schemes 
they will, for the reformation and salvation of our 
nation, they will but issue in vanity and vexation of 
spirit. The Lord hath rejected their confidences, 
and they shall not prosper in them. Nothing but a 
remarkable outpouring of the Spirit of God can pre- 
vent our superlative miseries, answerable to our 
heaven-daring national iniquities. As no civil soci- 
eties have any existence in the future state, national 
sins must of necessity be punished with national 
judgments in this world; Jer. v. 9, 29; Hos. iv. 
1 — 3; Isa. xxiv. 5, 6. (1.) The Jewish nation, to 
whose mercies and crimes those of Britain are pe- 
culiarly similar in different ages, were shut up to 



114 LIFE AND REMAINS OF 

fearful judgments, for want of an effusion of the Holy 
Ghost. Not all the faithfulness of Moses, their other 
governors, nor all the piety of Aaron and his sons, 
and of the faithful Levites in their church, nor all 
the laws they received from God himself, and the 
innumerable miracles which they saw and felt, could 
preserve that sensual generation, destitute of the Spi- 
rit, from tremendous ruin in the wilderness. Not 
all the fervent prayers and faithful sermons of Isaiah 
and his fellow prophets, nor all the remarkable re- 
formation carried on by pious king Hezekiah, could 
prevent the miserable calamities of the Jews in their 
time, as the Spirit was not poured out. Nay, not all 
the labours and miracles of Christ himself and of his 
apostles, and the pious lives and fervent prayers of 
many thousand Christian Jews, could, without the 
pouring of the Spirit on them, prevent the tremen- 
dous ruin of their nation in that period. Why then 
should we hope for deliverance by any other method ? 
Dare we pretend that we are dearer to God than his 
peculiar people, the seed of Abraham, his friend? 
(2.) The sins of Britain at present are so great, many, 
universal, heaven-daring, heart-hardening, and con- 
science-stupifying, and in every respect so aggra- 
vated, that the nation can neither be duly convinced 
of them, nor the blood of Christ answerably applied 
for the remission of them, without a remarkable 
effusion of the Holy Ghost ; John xvi. 7 — 14 ; Ezek. 
xxxvi. 25—29, 31, 32; Mic. vii. 18, 19. (3.) The 
wicked manners of Britain have been so long con- 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



115 



tinued, and are become so universal and fashionable, 
and are so much encouraged by such as should be re- 
provers and reformers, and men's consciences there- 
by so much blinded, biassed, or hardened, that there 
can be no national reformation of them, without a 
remarkable outpouring of the Spirit of God ; Hos. 
iv. 1, 2, 6; Isa. i. 2, 3, 4, 5 ; lix. 1—15; lvii. 17; 
Jer. v. 1 — 9. (4.) So many thousands of unsent, 
careless, indolent, unholy, and erroneous preachers 
in Britain, by their legal, Arminian, or blasphemous 
doctrine, and by their impious and unedifying ex- 
ample, lay a fearful bar in the way of all the ordinary 
work of the Holy Ghost ; Hos. v. 1 ; Gal. iii. 2 ; 
Ezek. xiii. 22. 

But, notwithstanding all these things, an abundant 
effusion of the Holy Ghost would prevent our super- 
lative ruin. (1.) It would excite and enable all the 
fearers of God in the nation, to strive together in 
prayer for our preservation and proper relief ; Zech. 
xii. 10; Isa. lxii. 1, 6, 7; Psal. cii. 17. (2.) In 
consequence of this, it would furnish our land with a 
a proper number of well-qualified ministers, who, 
having received their mission from Christ, would 
clearly, faithfully, assiduously, and earnestly preach 
the gospel of his free grace, and by fervent prayer, 
holy example, and every other method, travail in birth 
to win souls to him; Jer. iii. 15; Isa. lxii. 6, 7; 
Psal. cxxxii. 9, 16 ; John xx. 21—23 ; Eph. iv. 10 
— 13. (3.) It would furnish these faithful ministers 
with proper messages from God, suited to his own 



116 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



gracious purposes, and to the spiritual state of the 
hearers, and would enable them to deliver them in a 
lively, serious, and affecting manner ; Ezek. iii. 3, 
4, 10, 11, 17—21 ; xxxiii. 7—9 ; Mic. iii. 8 ; Acts 
xviii. 25, 28; Col. i. 28, 29 ; 1 Thess. ii. 4, 5; 

1 Cor. ii. 2—5, 13 ; iv. 2 ; 2 Cor. iv. 2 ; v. 11, 22; 

2 Tim.iv.2; Acts xx. 19— 21 , 26, 27. (4.) It would 
procure large and attentive audiences to hear these 
faithful ministers ; Acts ii., xiii., xviii., xix. ; 1 Cor. 
xvi. 9 ; Acts xvi. 14 ; Isa. xlix. 1 ; Iii. 15. (5.) It 
would, in carrying home the word of God into men's 
consciences and hearts, convey to them the spiritual 
benefits of the new covenant, — conviction of sin, 
union to Christ, regeneration, justification, adoption, 
sanctification, and comfort; Luke v. 17; John vi. 
63 ; Heb. iv. 12 ; 1 Thess. i. 5 ; ii. 13 ; Acts ii. 36 
— 47. (6.) It would incline, direct, and enable those 
ministers and people to such an holy conversation 
towards God and men, as would adorn and enforce 
the preached gospel of Christ, and make others to 
consider and fall in love with it ; 1 Thess. ii. 1 — 10 ; 
v. 12—25; Rom. i. 8; Acts ii. 41—47; iv. 13; 
Phil. ii. 15, 16; Matt. v. 16; Tit. ii. 9—14; iii. 
8, 14; Psal. ci. 2—8. (7.) It would render all 
ranks, in their respective stations, active and skilful 
in spreading the knowledge of Christ and his truths, 
and in repressing the now fashionable abominations ; 
Gen. xviii. 19; Josh. xxiv. 15; Deut. vi. 6, 7; 

Mai. iii. 16 ; Psal. ci. 2 ; Chron. xvii., xix., xxix 

xxxii., xxxiv., xxxv. ; Song ii. 15 ; Tit. iii. 10, 11 ; 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN, 



117 



Rev. ii. ; 1 Thess. v. 14 ; 2 Tim. iv. 2 ; 1 Tim. v. 
20. (8.) By enabling multitudes to discern truth 
from error, and sin from duty, it would render un- 
sound and indolent ministers despised and shunned 
as fearful plagues, and vile, impious persons abhorred, 
and so ashamed to exert themselves in their wonted 
evil ways ; Zech. xiii. 2 — 6; Psal. exv. 4 ; cvii. 42; 
1 Sam. ii. 30. (9.) By means of these things, toge- 
ther with the fervent prayers of such as believed in 
Christ, or fell under spiritual concern, many others 
would be daily added to the Lord and to his church ; 
Isa. Ixii. 1; 2 Thess. iii. 1 ; Isa. ii. 3 — 5 ; xlix., 
liv., lx., xliv. 3—5; Zech. viii. 20—23. (10.) In 
cipasequence of all this, the Lord would graciously 
defer, mitigate, or sanctify those fearful calamities 
which our nation in general, and each of us in par- 
ticular, have richly deserved ; Isa. xlviii. 9 — 11 ; vi. 
13 ; Zeph. iii. 12 ; Dan. ix. 25 ; Zech. xiii. 9. 

Let therefore every Briton that wishes well to his 
country, cease from trusting in men, and their car- 
nal and selfish politics, and cry mightily to God, that 
he may think on us, that we perish not ; that he may 
plentifully pour out his Spirit from on high upon all 
ranks. Let us plead the gracious promises which he 
hath given us on this head, and patiently wait for 
their fulfilment; Prov. i. 23; Isa. xxxii. 15; xliv. 
3 — 5 ; Ezek. xxxvh 27 ; Joel ii. 28 ; John vii. 37° — 
39; xiv. 26; xv. 26 ; xvi. 7— 14 ; Zech. xii. 10; 
Luke xi. 13. 



L 



118 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



XIII — Christ the Best Minister of the State. 

Upon our sovereign's advancing his present young 
minister, while multitudes strive who shall most con- 
demn or defend the British premier, let me turn mine 
eyes, my heart, and my tongue, towards Jesus Christ, 
to whom the Majesty of heaven hath committed all 
judgment, and given all power and fulness in heaven 
and on earth. Unless for an introduction to a better 
subject, it is not much worth my while to think or 
speak of British managers of state. Grey hairs assure 
me, that I shall soon be put out of their reach, with 
respect to both their good and their evil. But, bles- 
sed be God, I hope never to be out of the beneficent 
reach of the administrator of the new covenant ! And 
whether I look backward or forward on his adminis- 
trations, in earth or in heaven, I find them all full of 
infinite wisdom, condescension, faithfulness, mercy, 
and love. The more I know of him, or deal with 
him, my apprehensions of him are the more exalted 
and heart-engaging. When his eternal Father chose 
and appointed him to his office, he asked no lucrative 
salary, but the eternal salvation of his elect enemies 
of mankind ; nay, he undertook to give his life a 
ransom for us, pay all our infinite debt, and supply 
all our unbounded wants. No sooner had sin ren- 
dered us miserable in Adam, than he began, and for 
four thousand years continued, to intimate his gra- 
cious designs in different forms, to bind himself by 



THE REV, JOHN BROWN. 



119 



great and precious promises, and to bestow manifold 
blessings on sinful men ; yea, and all of these were 
but presages of blessings far greater, to be afterwards 
bestowed. 

When the fulness of time came, such was his 
grace, " that, though he was rich, yet for our sakes 
he became poor, that we through his poverty might 
be made rich." 64 He came not to be ministered 
unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom 
for many." By wearing the likeness of sinful flesh, 
by being made under the broken law, made sin, 
made a curse for us, and by his perfect obedience 
to every precept ; and by his enduring poverty, 
hunger, thirst, weariness, reproach, temptation, de- 
sertion, persecution, and an ignominious death, he 
fully paid our debt, magnified the law and made it 
honourable, and purchased our eternal happiness, 
Ris infinitely valuable righteousness he hath con- 
signed to the hand of the just and righteous Jehovah, 
as an inexhaustable fund of pardon, acceptance, 
grace, and glory, to men. In him men shall be 
blessed ; and because he lives they shall live also. 
"If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, 
Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation 
for our sins. Who then can lay any thing to the 
charge of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth; 
Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, 
nay rather, who is risen again, and is even at the 
right hand of God, making continual intercession 
for us." " Therefore now there is no condemnation 



120 LIFE AND REMAINS OF 

to them that are in Christ Jesus." We are the 
righteousness of God in him. The price being de- 
livered into his hand, Jehovah must bestow the pur- 
chased blessings on men. If we ask the Father any 
mercy in Jesus' name, he will, he must, grant it. 
He is faithful and just to forgive our sins, cleanse 
our natures, and fill us with grace and with glory. 

To render the communication more honourable 
to himself, and more sweet to us, it hath pleased the 
Father that in Christ all fulness should dwell. " He 
hath received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious 
also, that the Lord God might dwell among them, 
and daily load them with his benefits." God in love 
to him hath delivered all things into his hand, and 
given him power over all flesh, that he may give 
eternal life to as many as he will. His darling 
maxim is, that "It is more blessed to give than to 
receive." His liberal heart deviseth liberal things, 
and by liberal things his glory stands. From eter~ 
nity to eternity, he never thinks of imposing one 
hard assessment on poor and needy men, but how to 
save and bless them, and to feed them, and lift them 
up for ever. When he opens his budget, nothing 
is to be seen or heard but mercies, mercies and 
loving-kindnesses for ever and ever ; sure mercies 
of David, blessings of Abraham ; exceeding great 
and precious promises of eternal life — of Christ and 
his Spirit — of all the fulness of God, given, freely 
given, unto sinful men. Instead of squeezing col- 
lectors and excisemen, his officers are appointed to 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



121 



go into all the world, and preach the gospel of salva- 
tion to every creature, — to preach among the Gen- 
tiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to call 
and entreat sinners to take them freely, without 
money and without price. Alas ! that, instead of 
Christ's evangelists, Britain should be so overspread 
with legal and Arminian tax-demanders ! 

Under our blessed minister of state, how freely 
we enjoy all things! Our marriage with the Son 
of God is free. He is God's free gift to us. We 
are betrothed to him in loving-kindness and mercies. 
Our receipts and notes of obligation are free. We 
are justified freely by his grace, and are accepted in 
him to the praise of the glory of his grace. Our 
charters and rights are altogether free, — given pro- 
mises, an everlasting covenant put to us, even sure 
mercies, of which this is the sum, 41 1 will be to them 
a. God, and they shall be to me a people." Our 
house is eternal in the heavens, and God as our dwell- 
ing-place is free. Our eternal life is the free gift 
of God through Jesus Christ. Our ligfit, both of 
the night and day, is free. Christ, the light of the 
w-orld, is the unspeakable gift of God. Our birth is 
free ; of his own will he begets us again to a lively 
hope, and we are born of the free Spirit. Our bap- 
tism is free ; we are buried with Christ in baptism, 
baptized into Christ, and put on Christ. Our food 
is free bread, which the Father giveth us from 
heaven; water of life, which we are required to take 
freely, and wine and milk bought without money and 
l 2 



122 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



without price. Our raiment is free ; a gift of righte- 
ousness and grace, and garments of salvation. Our 
person is free ; for, whom the Son makes free, he is 
free indeed. Our trade is free ; whosoever will 
may use it, however poor or wretched. Our property 
and inheritance is free; what is good the Lord gives. 
Our riding to heaven in the chariots of salvation, or 
on horses of gospel-promises, is free. All the ser- 
vice that men and angels can give us is free. He 
that sitteth on the throne causeth us freely to inherit 
all things. Our death, or burial, our resurrection, 
our last sentence, and our eternal glory, are all free ; 
grace much more abounding where sin had abounded, 
and reigning through righteousness unto eternal 
life, by Jesus Christ our Lord. All things are ours, 
because we are Christ's and Christ is God's : we are 
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. 

Not only doth our great administrator allow us 
all things freely, but he himself provides, prepares, 
and gives them to us out of his own fulness. We 
have all, and abound, by receiving out of his fulness, 
and grace for grace. We have life because he died, t» 
and as a quickening Spirit comes that we may have 
life, and have it more abundantly. Our food is his 
flesh and blood, which he giveth for the life of the 
world. Our raiment is his everlasting righteousness, 
and purchased grace, put on by himself. Our wealth 
is his unsearchable riches. He himself is our all and 
in all. We are blessed with all our spiritual bless- 
ings of election, spiritual marriage, new birth, pardon, 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN, 



128 



acceptance, adoption, sanctification, perseverance, 
holy conversation, happy death, and everlasting 
glory, in Christ Jesus. Thrice blessed, infinitely 
"unparalleled Manager of our new covenant state, 
who contrived and purchased all, and who freely 
disposes and distributes all good things to us ; nay, 
in and of himself, is our all and in all! Let my soul 
rejoice in, and for ever boast of him as my God and 
my all ! my God and my all ! my God and my all ! 

For six thousand years past, he hath managed the 
whole concerns of the great King, the Lord of 
heaven and earth ; and hath dealt so prudently, that 
omniscience itself cannot find a flaw in his admistra- 
tions. Not one of the new covenant subjects, or an- 
gelic servants, but is ready to attest that he hath done 
all things well. His name is but still in the bud. 
His name shall endure for ever. It shall beget 
children before the sun. Men shall be blessed in 
him, and all nations shall call him blessed. The 
knowledge and glory of him shall fill the whole 
earth, and all the ends of the earth shall see his sal- 
vation and fear before him. The kingdoms of this 
world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of 
his Christ. There shall be one Lord over all the 
earth, and his name one, God shall cause his name, 
which is above every name that is named, to be re- 
membered in all generations, and the people shall 
praise him for ever and ever. 

When, at the last day, he shall come in his own 
and his Father's glory, with all his holy angels, he 



124 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



shall judge the world in righteousness, and the 
people in equity. Not one conscience of the whole 
assembly, consisting, perhaps, of some millions of 
millions, but shall, at every step of his conduct, cry 
out, Righteous art thou, O Lord, and righteous are 
thy judgments ! Even Beelzebub, infidels, heretics, 
profane, formalists, and their fellows, who had per- 
severed till the last, in reproaching and blaspheming 
him in his absence, shall, with hanging heads and 
trembling hearts, confess themselves to have been 
impudent liars, and that he is Lord, to the glory 
of the Father. Even in hell, every conscience, to 
the eternal anguish and torment of its owner, shall 
perpetually attest the wisdom and equity of his whole 
conduct, and the justice of their own damnation, as 
reproachers of, and rebels against, him. In heaven, 
his equity, wisdom, mercy, and love, and the righte- 
ousness and holiness of all his works, are, and shall 
for ever be, the ravishing wonder of every heart, 
and the delightful burden of every song. In the 
view of my being for ever thus employed, let my 
heart now meditate good matter concerning my 
King, and in speaking to his honour, let my tongue 
be as the pen of a ready writer. 



XIV. — Blanchard 's Travel excelled. 



When I read and hear of the modern bustling about 
air balloons, what multitudes assemble to behold 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN, 



125 



their motion, and from what distance; and think 
what useful money, and still more precious time, is 
spent in that unprofitable contemplation, it makes me 
with great grief and shame to think, " Lord hast 
thou made men in vain ? " Hast thou made them 
more thoughtless and improvident than the grass- 
hopper, or more stupid and unnatural than the ostrich, 
that most live altogether unconcerned about either 
time or eternity? Have they no bodies, no families 
to provide for ? have they no just debts to pay ? no 
occasions of giving to him that needeth ? have they 
no souls to be for ever saved, or to be eternally 
damned? Is it possible for men, who have souls, to 
run or ride scores of miles to behold a large and full- 
blown bladder mounting into the air, who neverthe- 
less would grudge to travel one or two to behold the 
glory, and see the goings, of my God and my King 
in the sanctuary ? Is it possible that such as have 
immortal and precious souls, should spend more time 
in one day, in this pitiful contemplation, than ever 
they spent in serious searching of their heart, or 
solemn prayer to their God ; in taking heed to their 
way ; in looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of 
our faith ; to God that dwelleth in the heavens above 
them ; or to the infinitely important eternity that is 
before them ? 

But rejoice, O my soul, that by the grace of God, 
I have taken my seat in that divine balloon, the ever- 
lasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure ! 
and this is all my salvation, and all my desire. I am 



126 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



on the very point of setting off, not for France, or 
its dangerous wood, but for the paradise of God, the 
palace of my king, in whose presence is fulness of joy, 
and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore. 
Perhaps next moment I may begin my journey, not 
over the straits of Dover, but over the deeps of death. 
Yet I shall not die, but live and praise the Lord. 
Because Jesus liveth, I shall live also. He hath the 
keys of hell and death. He did and he will swallow 
up death in victory. He hath redeemed me from 
death: 44 O death, he was thy plague! O grave, he 
was thy destruction ! " Be not therefore, my soul, 
afraid, but only believe, and thou shalt soon see the 
glory of God. u While I walk through the valley of 
the shadow of death I will fear no evil ; for God shall 
be with me ; his rod and his staff shall comfort me. " 
u O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy 
victory?" Though in my dying moments the winds 
should rise, the rains descend, and floods come and 
beat upon me, I shall neither fall nor sink, nor be 
driven out of my way. God hath said to me 44 Fear 
not, for I will be with thee. Be not dismayed, for 
I am thy God. I will help thee, yea, I will uphold 
thee with the right hand of my righteousness. When 
thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee ; 
and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. 
When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not 
be burnt, nor shall the flame kindle upon thee. Why 
shouldest thou then be cast down, O my soul ? Why 
shouldest thou be disquited within me ? still trust in 
God, for I shall yet praise him; for heis the health 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



127 



of my countenance and my God. " Though I should 
walk in the midst of trouble, I shall have life from 
him. Though the waters should swell even to the 
brim, they shall not overflow my soul, nor come near 
unto me. Thou shalt hide me from trouble, and 
shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. 

Arise, O my ransomed soul, and go over, go up to 
mount Zion, to the Lord thy God! Arise, for the 
Master is come, and calleth for thee. It is the voice 
of my beloved who speaks and says to me, 44 Arise, 
my love, my fair one, and come away ; for the winter 
is past, and the rain is over and gone. " " My desire 
is to depart and to be with Christ, which is far 
better. " Why tarry the wheels of his chariots ? 
and why is he so long a coming ? Stript by the grace 
of God of this body of sin and self, and of this frail 
and mortal frame, I shall mount as the eagle, shall fly 
and not be weary, ascend and never faint. Adieu, 
you subtle self, you filthy lusts, you molehill earth — 
I will have nothing more to do with you. Hoisted 
up by Jehovah's love, attended by his hymning angels, 
ail inflamed by his Spirit, I sing and soar away. You 
malicious, murdering powers of air, shall see it, and 
shall gnash your teeth, and melt away. You wander- 
ing planets, you enlightening sun, you glittering 
stars, in whom I have often discerned the glories of 
God, my God — I bid you all farewell. I am on my 
way to far brighter worlds, where you can never be 
seen; where God shall be my sun, my moon, my 
stars, my everlasting light, my glory, and my all in 
all. While the ravishing music of heaven meets my 



128 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



ears, and transports my heart, I see the pearly gate 
east wide open, to give me an abundant entrance into 
the kingdom of my Lord. I perch, not on the top 
of woodland trees, but on the Tree of Life. In the 
arms of my God, I enter the new Jerusalem. I am 
brought into the palace of my king with gladness 
great, and mirth on every side. Methinks all heaven 
is moved to meet me at my coming, and crying with 
sweet wonder, " Who is this? what unparalleled 
monument of redeeming grace is this ? " Not French 
grandees, but an innumerable company of angels, and 
the general assembly of the first-born, the spirits- of 
just men made perfect ; God, the Judge of all, Jesus, 
the Mediator of the new Testament, and the blessed 
Spirit of all grace, welcome me in the most delight- 
ful forms! Now I enter into the joy of my Lord, 
and sit down with Christ on his throne. I am, and 
shall be, ever with the Lord. I see the redeeming 
Godhead as it is, and am filled with all the fulness of 
God, and know him even as I am known. I am per- 
fectly conformed to his image. My heart is inflamed, 
and my mouth rilled with his praise and honour all 
the day. Lord, what am I, that thou hast brought 
me hitherto ! What can the first-rate sinner more 
say? Is this the manner of men, O Lord ! 



XV. — A sore-vexed Soul delivered. 



" A wounded spirit who can bear?" My heart 
knoweth its own bitterness, but strangers do not 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN, 



129 



intermeddle with my joy. Lately I lay in the belly 
of hell. My soul was sore vexed, and sunk in deep 
waters where there was no standing, in an horrible 
pit and miry clay indeed. (1.) My mind was fear- 
fully overwhelmed with continual thoughts of the 
holiness, equity, and majesty of God ; Psalm lxxxvii. 
3. (2.) I looked on God as mine inveterate enemy, 
intending my hurt in all that he did or said. As I 
had rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit, I suspected 
that he fought against me ; Isa. lxiii. 10; Lam. iii. 
3 — 13. I apprehended his words, his works, as all 
breathing forth threatenings, curses, and slaughter, 
against me. I apprehended my life and my death, 
heaven and hell, as working together a far more ex- 
ceeding and eternal weight of misery for me. (3.) 
All my evidences of former grace were utterly lost. 
I apprehended all my former experiences to have 
been delusions, or but common workings of the Holy 
Ghost ; and all my religious exercise to have been 
but hypocritical dissimulation with God and men, 
Psalm lxxiii. ; lxxxviii. 4 ; Lam. iii. 2 ; Hosea xi. 
12. (4.) In the form and aggravations of my sin, and 
in the dreadful and long-continued hardness of my 
heart, I apprehended that I saw fearful tokens of my 
reprobation, sinning against the Holy Ghost, or out- 
sinning my day of grace ; Psalm lxxvii. 6 — 10 ; Gen. 
vi. 3; Rev. xxii. 11. (5.) Even my thoughts of 
Jesus Christ, and his great salvation, filled me with 
anguish ; as I looked on them as for ever lost to me : 
nay, through my rejection of them, fearfully instru- 

M 



130 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



mental of my eternal and unparalleled damnation ; 
2 Cor. ii. 16; iii. 14; iv. 3, 4; Rom. xi. 31, 
32 ; 1 Pet. ii. 8 ; Heb. x. 26, 27, 29, 31 ; 2 Thess. 

1. 7 — 9 ; Rev. i. 7. (6.) My thoughts, fixing on 
everything dreadful, drew terrors from every object, 
into every faculty of my soul, and filled them there- 
with ; Job. vi. 4 ; Psalm lxxxviii. 15. (7.) Every 
view contributed to produce the most agonizing fears 
in my soul. I could not think of God, but as wrath- 
ful ; of heaven and salvation, but as lost; of hell, 
but as infallibly secured ; of my life, but as miserable, 
and ripening me for greater damnation ; and of my 
death, but as an entrance into everlasting torment ; 
Isa. xxiv. 17, 18 ; Heb. x. 26, 27. (8.) I lost all 
heart to pray for relief, and all life and ease of mind 
in essaying it ; my thoughts were in such a confused 
hurry, or so unsettled, that I could scarce speak 
sense, or speak a word. This, together with the 
apprehension of the Lord's rejecting my prayers, and 
turning them into sin, filled me with such sorrow as 
quite damped my soul, restrained all exercise of faith, 
hope, or love, spoiled my duties, and became so great 
that I could not vent it ; Psalm Ixxiv. 4 ; Job vi. 

2, 3 ; x. 15 — 17 ; xxiii. 2. (9.) Hence my soul 
lost all patience, and raged like a wild bull in a net 
under my distress ; Isa. Ii. 20 ; Job xviii. 4 ; Psalm 
xxxviii. 8; xxii. 1. (10.) Having lost all views of 
either the probability or possibility of my deliver- 
ance, I considered the intermissions of my agony, as 
but a breathing to prepare me for new racking and 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



131 



torture; Psalm lxxvii. 6 — 10. (11.) Satan being- 
let loose upon me, exercised his malice and cruelty 
to the very uttermost, and improved every thing, 
present or future, in heaven, earth, and hell, as in- 
struments of his torture. Ah, the vile, the blasphe- 
mous, the horrible, the dreadful suggestions, he 
violently threw into my soul ! 2 Cor. xii. 7 ; Psalm 
cix. 6; Luke ix. 39 — 42. (12.) My despair became 
exceeding deep, fixed, and dreadful ; Ezek. xxxvii. 
11 ; Jer. ii. 25; Psalm lxxvii. 7 — 10; Acts xxvii. 
20. (13.) I considered my present troubles as a 
certain and dreadful earnest, if not immediate intro- 
duction into everlasting misery ; Isa. xxxiii. 14. (14.) 
All comparison of my soul's present condition, with 
that which it had been, or with that of others, did 
but add to my anguish ; Job xxix. 2 — 5 ; "Psalm xlii. 
3,4. (15.) While my apprehension of the infernal 
torments were so dreadful, that I was afraid to sleep 
lest I should have awakened amidst them, my inward 
torments were so insupportable, that I indulged an 
aversion at the continuance of my life, and an anxiety 
to know what would be the worst of my misery in 
hell, — which Satan violently improved in tempting 
me to murder myself ; Job vi. 8, 9 ; vii. 3, 4, 14, 
J5; x. 1 ; iii. 20, 23, 24. (16.) Hence I could 
not refrain from, nay even indulged, outrageous 
expressions against the Lord and his dealings with 
me ; 2 Kings ii. 33 ; Job iii. 6, 10 ; Psalm lxxiii. 2 
— 13 ; lxxvii. 4 — 10 ; lxxxviii. 2 — 18 ; Isa. xlix, 
14 ; Jer. xxv. 7—18. 



132 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



But, after weeping had endured for a night, joy 
came in the morning. By his sovereign, gracious 
return to my soul, (1 .) The Lord made Satan to leave 
me, and flee off ; Luke ix. 42 ; Rom. xvi 20 ; Gen. 
iii. 15 ; and even before he went off, gave me strength 
to resist him; 2 Cor. xii. 9 ; 1 Cor. x. 13 ; Isa. lix. 
29 — 31. (2.) He commanded such a calm in my 
mind, that I could attentively listen to his words ; 
Psalm xlvi. 10 ; lxv. 7 ; cvii. 29. (3.) He spoke 
home his gracious declarations and promises to my 
heart, with such pointed power, light, and life, that 
every sentence appeared exactly formed for me, and 
pleasantly penetrated to the very centre of my soul ; 
particularly Isa. i. 18 ; xl. 1, 2 ; xliii. 25; xlv. 22; 
xlix. 15, 16, 24—26 ; Kv. 1—17; Mi. 15—20; 
Ezek. xxxvi. 25 — 29 ; Hos. xiv. 4. (4.) By these 
words he conveyed into the respective powers of my 
soul such abundant pardon, peace, light, life, liberty, 
health, strength, and holiness, as made it, which had 
been so long like a very hell of wickedness and 
misery, a meet habitation for himself by the Spirit; 
Isa. 1. 4 ; John vi. 63 ; Luke v. 17 ; 1 Thess. i. 5 ; 
ii. 13. (5.) Hence my inward graces revived as 
the corn. My spiritual knowledge, faith, hope, love, 
and repentance, were quickened, excited, and en- 
abled to make a proper improvement of his words to, 
and gracious work on, me; John i. 16; Psalm 
xxxviii. 3; cxix. 50; Eph. i. 17—19; iii. 16—19; 
Phil. i. 1—19; iv. 13, 19; Col. i. 9—11. (6.) 
Hereon my soul was filled, and even ravished, with 



The rev. john brown, 



133 



peace and joy in believing. I thought that though 
I had been a thousand years in hell, all my torment 
and sorrow were fully over-balanced with the abun- 
dant consolations of Christ ; 1 Pet. i. 8 ; Rom. xv. 
13; v. 1—5, 11 ; 2 Cor. i. 3—7. I saw that, 
in all my former affliction, the Lord had been but 
enlarging and seasoning my soul for an amazing, 
an eternal fill, of all thy fulness of God as my ex- 
ceeding joy. O how my heart heaved in joy, and 
my lips burst in praise ! Not a song in all the bible 
but I could sing with sweet application to myself, 
particularly Psalms xxxiv. 1 — 8; xxiii. 1 — 6; xviii., 
iii., cxvi», cxviii., cxlv., cxlvi., cxlviii., cxxxviii. ; 
Isa. xii., xxv., liii. 7 ; Psalm xl. 1 — 5. (7.) Be- 
ing thus constrained by the love of Christ and his 
Father and blessed Spirit, in making such unparal- 
leled stretches of mercy towards me, I was led out 
in a most earnest activity in running the way of his 
commandments. I was sweetly nonplussed how to 
get enough of fellowship with him in his ordinances, 
_and how I might best honour him in the v/ay of holy 
obedience. My viewing of his law as the command- 
ments of my God, had the force of ten thousand 
motives on my heart ; 2 Cor. 14, 15; Psalm cxix. 
32,, 115; cxvi. 12, 16; 1 John iv. 9, 10, 19. (8.) 
While I clearly perceived my eternal happiness 
founded in the infinite grace of God, and surety- 
righteousness of Christ, and no more on my best 
works than on my worst, it gave me inexpressible 
pleasure that, in a little time, I should be as near 
m 2 



134 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF, &C. 



him, and as like to him, and as perfect in love to 
him, as my heart could wish ; and I was led out to 
great diligence in duty, not to purchase heaven, but 
to prepare me for receiving it, as the free gift of 
God through Jesus Christ my Lord. 

Let me, from experience, beseech you distressed 
souls, (1.) Labour to avoid all expressions that can 
dishonour God, or discourage others from following 
Christ ; Psalm xxxix, 1. (2.) In your distress, ear- 
nestly attend to every point of duty, whether spiritual 
or temporal; Isa. bdv. 5. (3.) Deal much in search- 
ing your heart and way in order to pour out your 
confessions and complaints before the Lord; Lam. 
iii. 40. But it is not safe for you to examine your- 
self, in order to discover your spiritual state, while 
you are overwhelmed with trouble. (4.) It is very 
proper for you to reveal your case to some experi- 
enced minister or Christian ; but, above all, deal 
much in pouring out your heart to God; Psalm Ixii. 
8 ; cii. ; cxliii. (5.) Meditate much on the infi- 
nite worth of Christ's blood to overbalance all your 
sinfulness, and on the infinite power of God's grace 
and mercy to relieve you ; 1 John i. 7, and ii. 1,2; 
Mic. vii. 18, 19. (6.) Labour earnestly to apply 
closely to your own soul and case, the gracious pro- 
mises of the gospel ; particularly those which suit the 
very worst of sinners, and worst of cases, on this 
side hell. Such promises as Satan, and your own 
unbelieving heart, can least pretend to be above your 
reach, as Isa. xli. 17, 18 ; xliii. 24, 25 ; Matt. ix. 
13 ; xviii. 11 ; Luke xix. 10; 1 Tim. i. 15. 



THS 



AUTHOR'S DYING ADVICE 

TO HIS 

YOUNGER CHILDREN. 



My dear children, — Believing that God hath made 
with me, and with my seed after me, his everlasting 
covenant, to be a God to me and to my seed, I did, 
in your baptism, and often since, and now do, before 
God and his angels, make a solemn surrender of you 
all into the hands of my God, and ray father's God, 
and of the God of your mother, and her father's 
God, and in the presence of that God ; and as ye 
shall answer at his second coming, I charge you, 

1st. To learn diligently the principles of our 
Christian and of our Protestant religion, from your Ca- 
techisms and Confession of Faith, but especially from 
your bible : God's word hath a light and life, a power 
and sweetness, in it, which no other book hath, and 
by it your souls must be quickened and live, or you 
must be damned for ever ; and the more closely you 



136 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



press the words of the bible to your own hearts, and 
pray, and think them over before God, you will find 
them the more powerful and pleasant. My soul hath 
found inexpressibly more sweetness and satisfaction, 
in a single line of the bible, nay, in two such words 
as these. Thy God and my God, than all the plea- 
sures found in the things of the world since the 
creation, could equal. 

2nd. Give yourselves to prayer; Jesus hath said, 
44 Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come 
unto me ; for of such is the kingdom of heaven. I 
love them that love me ; and those that seek me early 
shall find me. Remember now thy Creator in the 
days of thy youth. The Lord is good to them that 
seek him. He is the hearer of prayer ; and there- 
fore to him should all flesh come." The Lord, the 
father of the fatherless, takes an especial pleasure in 
hearing the prayers of the fatherless young ones. 

When I was left destitute of a father, and soon 
after, of a mother, the Lord dealt so with me ; and 
though I was too bent on childish diversions, the 
Lord, on some occasions, made prayer more pleasant 
to me than any of them. By prayer improve the 
Lord as your father, consulting him and asking his 
direction in all your ways ; and seeking his blessing 
on your learning, and on whatever you do agreeable 
to his will. 

3rd. Study earnestly to love, honour, and obey 
your mother, and to be a comfort to her. Much 
trouble hath she had in bringing you so far in the 



THE REV, JOHN BROWN. 



137 



world, and much affection hath she showed you. 
She hath now a double charge and authority over 
you. The Lord now observes particularly what is 
done to her. Oh, for the Lord's sake, do not dis- 
honour her, nor break her heart, by your disobedi- 
ence and graceless walk ; otherwise the Lord's 
dreadful curse will light upon you, and ye will readily 
soon perish ; for, think what God hath said, (Prov. 
xvii. 25,) — " A foolish son is a grief to his father, and 
bitterness to her that bore him chap. xx. 20, 
44 Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp 
shall be put out in obscure darkness." See also 
Lev. xx. 3, 4; Deut. xxi. 18, 19; Prov. x. 1 ; xiii. 
1 ; xv. 5, 20 ; xix. 13, 26 ; xxviii. 7, 24 ; xxx. 17. 

4th, Avoid, as plagues, every light, frothy, and 
wicked companion. Be not a disgrace to me, and 
cause of damnation to yourselves, by keeping com- 
pany with idle talkers, swearers, drunkards, tipplers, 
frothy, or lewd persons. Scarce any thing more in- 
fallibly brings persons to misery in this world, or to 
hell in the next, than loose and trifling companions. 
Prov. xiii. 20, 44 He that walketh with wise men 
shall be wise ; but a companion of fools shall be de- 
stroyed." Chap, xxviii. 7, 41 Whoso keepeth the law is 
a wise son ; but he that is a companion of riotous men 
shameth his father." See also Prov. i.,ii., v., vi., vii., 
and ix. ; and 1 Cor. v. 9, 11. Never make any your 
companions, with whom you would not wish to ap- 
pear at the judgment-seat of Christ, and with whom 
you would not wish to live for ever. 



138 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



5tk. Mind earnestly the infinitely important con- 
cerns of your eternal salvation. I hereby constitute 
these addresses, annexed to my shorter and larger 
catechisms, a part of my dying directions to you. 
Oh, ponder and practise them ! Wo to you, if, by 
your carelessness and wickedness, you thrust the 
grace of God out from among my posterity ! Ah, 
my dear young children, shall I at the last day have 
to echo my Amen to Christ's sentence of your eter- 
nal damnation ! In order to stir up your concern 
about eternal things, let me beseech you to read Bos- 
ton's Fourfold State, Pearce's Best Match, Ruther- 
ford's Letters, Guise's Sermons to Young People, 
Allen's Alarm, and Baxter's Call ; but beware of 
some legal directions in the last two. Read also the 
lives of Elizabeth Cairns, of Alexander Archibald, 
and especially the lives of Messrs. Thomas Haly- 
burton, James Fraser, and James Hogg. Perhaps 
also my Journal may be useful to you ; but, above 
all, read the Book of Inspiration, 

6th. Never affect conformity to the vain and vile 
fashions of this world : if you do, you disobey God, 
and hazard the ruin of your own souls. Rom. xii. 
2, " Be not conformed to the world, but be ye trans- 
formed by the renewing of your mind." James iv. 4, 
44 Know ye not that the friendship of this world is 
enmity with God?" u Whosoever, therefore, will be 
a friend of the world, is the enemy of God." See also 
1 Cor. vii, 31 ; 1 John ii. 15, 17; iv. 5, 6; v. 4, 19 ; 
John vii. 7 ; xv. 18, 19 ; Psalm xv. 4 ; cxxxix. 21 ; 
xix. 53, 115, 136, 158._ 



TJHE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



139 



7 th. Never marry, nor take one step toward 
marriage, without much serious and solemn consulta- 
tion of God, and patient waiting for his direction. 
By means of rash marriages was the old world de- 
filed ; and it was partly on this account that it was 
drowned ; Gen. vi. In consequence of these ex- 
"amples, Esau's posterity was cast out from the church 
of God to all generations ; Gen. xxvi. 34, 35. 
Judah's family was disgraced and killed ; and it is to 
be feared that his two sons perished ; Gen. xxxviii. 
Not only Jehoshophat's family, but even the kingdom 
of Judah, was almost ruined; 2 Chron. xxi., xxii. 
How dreadful for your own souls, and for those of 
your children, if you take into your bosom an un- 
converted lump of wrath ! For the Lord's sake let 
no beauty, no affability, no wealth, decoy any of you 
into this dangerous snare, which may exclude the 
grace of God from your family, till the end of time ; 
1 Cor. vii. 39 ; Deut. vii. 3, 4; Ezra ix. 2, 3, 
12, 14. 

Sth. If the Lord give you families aud children, 
bring them up to God. I have essayed to point out 
your duty in this respect, in my two sermons at 
Whitburn and In nerkei thing, which were printed : 
I pray you seriously to peruse these, and to comply 
with the advices given in the same. 

9th. Set the Lord always before you as your Savi- 
our, witness, master, pattern, and future judge. 
David saith, (Psalm xvi. 8,) " I have set the Lord 
always before me : because he is at my right hand I 



140 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF, &C. 



shall not be moved." It is the command of God, 
1 Cor. x. 31, " Whether therefore ye eat or drink, 
or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 

10th. Adhere constantly, cordially, and honestly, 
to the covenanted principles of the Church of Scot- 
land, and to that testimony which hath been lifted up 
for them. I fear a generation is rising up, which will 
endeavour silently to let slip these matters, as if they 
were ashamed to hold them fast, or even to speak of 
them. May the Lord forbid, that any of you should 
ever enter into this confederacy against Jesus Christ 
and his cause ! — This from a dying father and minis- 
ter, and a witness for Christ. 

John Brown. 



DYING WORDS. 



Fob some years before Mr. Brown died, he was 
troubled with a weakness in his stomach. In the 
months of January and February, this weakness re- 
markably increased. His friends observed it with 
grief, and accordingly desired him to desist at least 
from part of his public work. Eager to warn sin- 
ners of their danger, and fond to commend his Lord, 
he told them, u I am determined to hold to Christ's 
work so long as I can. How can a dying man spend 
his last breath better than in preaching Christ ?" 
On the 25th of February, which was his last Sabbath 
in the pulpit, he preached from Luke ii. 26, u It 
was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he 
should not see death till he had seen the Lord's 
Christ." In the close of his sermon, he took a so- 
lemn farewell of his own congregation ; and plainly 
intimated, that in the pulpit they would see his face 
no more. Though now he was scarce able to sup- 
port himself, yet he continued his evening sermon, 
and seemed to preach with more earnestness than 
ever. He preached his last sermon from Acts xiii. 
26, " To you is the word of this salvation sent." 

N 

t 



142 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



As in the afternoon he had addressed the people im- 
mediately connected with himself, in the evening 
he, in a very affecting manner, bid adieu to his 
hearers, mostly members of the Established Church. 

March 2. A friend observing that he ought to be 
more careful in the use of means for his recovery, 
he replied, " If Christ be magnified, whether in my 
life or death, that is the great matter." 

March 3. One happening to talk in his presence 
about reading history, he remarked, " Often we read 
history as atheists or deists, rather than as Christians. 

" To read of events without observing the hand of 
God in them, is to read as atheists : to read, and 
not observe how all events conduce to carry on the 
work of redemption, is to read as deists." In the 
evening, his spirits being apparently sunk, and his 
relations taking notice of it, he told them, 44 A piece 
of history sometimes hath amused me, when my na- 
tural spirits were low, but now I find no pleasure ex- 
cept in meditating on the promises : I wish to begin 
with that in Genesis, ' The seed of the woman shall 
bruise the head of the serpent,' and to delight my- 
self with it, and all the rest that follow, to the end 
of the Revelation of John." 

March 4. An acquaintance saying to him, that it 
was pleasant to see the great Mr. Hervey insisting 
so much on grace reigning through righteousness. 
u Yes," replied he, " that is the doctrine which is 
good to live with, and good to die with." 

This being Sabbath he went out to hear a sermon. 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN, 



143 



After he returned to his house, he cried, u Oh, what 
a happy life a Christian might have, if he were always 
persuaded of the love of God, which is in Christ 
Jesus our Lord ! If there were such a thing as ex- 
change of learning, I should willingly quit with all 
my acquaintance with languages, &c. , to know experi- 
mentally what that meaneth, ' I am crucified with 
Christ : nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ 
liveth in me ; and the life which I now live in the 
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who 
loved me, and gave himself for me.'" 

In the evening, being asked if he thought himself 
better ; he answered, with a great deal of composure, 
44 I am no worse, but I do not wish to have a will in 
that matter, — only I would not desire to live, and 
yet not be able for Christ's work, though perhaps, 
were God so ordering it, he would enable me to 
bear that too." 

March 6. He called his two eldest sons into his 
room ; and, as they were about to leave him for a 
time, he exhorted them, in the most earnest manner, 
to trust in the Lord, and to be doing good. 44 No 
doubt," said he, 44 I have met with trials as well as 
others ; yet so kind hath God been to me, that I 
think, if God were to give me as many years as I 
have already lived in the world, I would not desire 
one single circumstance in my lot changed, — except 
that I wish I had had less sin." 

March 20. He became much weaker than he was 
before. His memory was much impaired, but his 



144 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



judgment continued as entire as ever. He conversed 
like a man that quite overlooked earthly things, and 
seemed to have his affections almost wholly set on 
things above. Some of his expressions were as fol- 
low : — 

66 I have often wondered at the favour which men 
have showed to me, but much more at the favour of 
God to such a grevious sinner. 

44 Oh, to be with God, to see him as he is, — to 
know him even as he is known ; it is worthy, not 
merely of going for, but of dying for, to see a smil- 
ing God ! 

44 About the year , God said to my soul, I 

have loved thee with an everlasting love ; and oh, 
how faithful he hath been to that since ! 

44 There would not have been more grace shown 
in the redemption of the chief of devils, than in saving 
me ; the same price would have ransomed them, — 
the same strivings would have overcome them. 

44 Men may talk of the sovereignty of redeeming 
love as they will ; but had it not been sovereign, in- 
finitely sovereign, I had been as surely damned, as 
if I were in hell already. 

44 Were it not that God foresaw our sins and pro- 
vocations from eternity, he never could have con- 
tinued his love to me, the grevious sinner, — the 
arrant rebel : yet I think he is now preparing me for 
being ever with himself. Oh, what is that ! — I have 
done all that lies in my power to damn myself ; and, 
though I will not say, that God hath done all that he 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



145 



could to save me, yet I am sure he hath done a great 
deal, 

44 If angels and men knew the raging enmity of my 
heart, what would they think of redeeming love, 
which hath pitched on me ! 

44 O, what a miracle to see me, the arrant rebel, 
sitting on the throne with Jesus ! and I hope I shall 
be seen there. What cannot Jesus do ! 

44 O, how these words, 4 He loved me, and gave 
himself for me,' once penetrated into my heart, and 
made me cry, 4 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and let 
all that is within me, be stirred up to bless his holy 
name.'" 

A friend asking him if he had any appetite for his 
supper, he replied, 44 Yes ; Oh, if I had but as good 
an appetite for the fulness of God, as I have for 
earthly victuals !" 

One observing to him, that under all his weakness, 
his mind seemed to be very composed ; he answered, 
44 Indeed I am composed ; God hath put a bridle in 
my mouth ; and though I have been a most perverse 
wretch, yet he hath strangely restrained me : and, 
Oh, how amazing! he hath done this chiefly by 
loving -kindnesses and tender mercies ; and is not 
that a strange bridle for such an imp of hell as I have 
been ? 

44 I cannot say that I have found God's words and 
eaten them ; but truly his words have found me, and 
have been given to me, and have been to me the joy 
and rejoicing of my heart. 

n 2 



146 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



44 Oh that is a sweet little sentence, 4 We shall be 
for ever with the Lord !' Oh, how sweet ! for ever 
with the Lord ! And that which makes the wonder 
is this, that it is we that are to enjoy this happiness ; 
we, pitiful wretches, are to be for ever with God our 
Saviour, God in our nature ! 

44 How amazing the mystery of redemption, in 
which the rich deservants of hell are exalted to the 
throne of God, and that by the blood of our Lord 
Jesus Christ ! 

" Oh, to be brought to this point, 

' Then will I to God's altar go, 

To God my chiefest joy : 
Yea, God, my God, thy name to praise 

My harp I will employ.'— Psalm xliii. 4. 

" I desire to depart and to be with Christ, which 
is far better : and though I have lived sixty years 
very comfortably in this world, yet I would gladly 
turn my back on you all, to be with Christ. I am 
sure Christ may say of me, 4 These sixty years this 
wretch hath grieved me."' 

March 21. In the preceding evening when he fell 
asleep, he seemingly left his heart with Christ ; and, 
if we might guess his meditation by his words, this 
morning when he awaked, he was still with him : 
among the first words which he spoke were these ; 
44 Oh, it is pleasant to enjoy fellowship with Christ ! 
Any small acquaintance I have had of him convinceth 
me of this. And oh, how much more pleasure might 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



147 



I have had, had it not been for my own folly and 
wickedness ! 

44 I think now that I could willingly die to see him, 
who is white and ruddy, the chief among ten thou- 
sand." 

When at breakfast, he expressed himself thus : — 
44 How amazing that a rich deservant of hell should 
get such a meal ! how much more that a rich deser- 
vant of hell should get a Christ !" 

Addressing himself to his two sons in the ministry, 
he said, with peculiar earnestness, 44 O labour, la- 
hour for Christ while ye have strength ; I now repent 
that I have been so lazy and so slothful in his service. 
O commend Jesus ! I have been looking at him 
for these many years, and never yet could find a fault 
in him, but what was of my own making ; though he 
hath seen ten thousand thousand faults in me, Many 
a comely person I have seen, but none so comely as 
Christ ; many a kind friend I have had, but none like 
Christ in loving-kindnessess and tender mercies." 

Some short time after, he said unto them, 44 I 
know not whether ever I shall see you together again 
or not; but, O labour, labour to win souls to 
Christ ; there is none like Christ ! there is none like 
Christ ! there is none like Christ ! I am sure a poor, 
worthless wretch he hath had of me ; but a precious, 
superlatively precious Christ I have had of him. 
Never grudge either purse or person for Christ : I 
can say this, that I never was a loser by any time 
spent, or by any money given, for him. 



148 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



" Oh, the pains which God has been at to save me, 
and the pains I have been at to destroy myself! but 
he hath partly gained, and I hope that he will com- 
pletely gain, the victory." 

After taking a ride in a chaise, when he came into 
his house he observed, 44 Reading tires me, walking 
tires me, riding tires me; but, were I once with 
Jesus, fellowship with him will never tire me: 4 so 
shall we be ever with the Lord !' " 

In the afternoon he lay down on his bed ; and 
being asked, after he awaked, how he was, he re- 
plied, 44 I am no worse; I am just a monument of 
mercy, and that is a great deal for such a sinner, 
especially when I add, that I am hoping for redemp- 
tion through Christ's blood, even the forgiveness of 
my sins, according to the riches of his grace. 

44 If doubting, disputing, and trampling on his kind- 
ness, could have made him change his love, it had 
never been continued towards me. Though I have 
not been left to commit gross crimes, yet He and I 
know the outrageous wickedness of my heart ; — such 
wickedness as would have provoked any, but a God 
of infinite love, to have cast me into hell : yet, lo, in- 
stead of casting me there, he taketh me into his bo- 
som and tells me, 4 1 have loved thee with an everlast- 
ing love, and with loving -kindness have I drawn thee. 
I will heal their bacJtslidings, and I will love them 
freely/ 

44 Oh, how the Lord hath borne and carried me! 
He hath indeed given me my stripes, but never ex- 
cept when I richly deserved them. 4 Oh, that men 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



149 



would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his 
wonderful works towards the children of men.' 

u I was young when left by my parents ; yet their 
instructions, accompanied with God's dealings, made 
such impressions on my heart, as I hope will continue 
with me to all eternity. I have served many masters, 
but none so kind as Christ ; I have dealt with many 
honest men, but no creditor like Christ ; had I ten 
thousand hearts, they should all be given to Christ ; 
and had I ten thousand bodies, they should all be em- 
ployed in labouring for his honour." 

Seeing two or three persons of his acquaintance 
sitting round him, he said, u Now, sirs, I have sinned 
longer, and in more aggravated forms, than any of 
you ; but what sins cannot the blood of Christ wash 
out — what cannot mercy forgive ? 4 The Lord 
passed by and proclaimed his name ; the Lord, the 
Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, 
and abundant in goodness and in truth.' Oh, how 
astonishing, that the Spirit of God should enter in- 
to our vile hearts, contrary to our strivings ! Even 
so it seemeth good in his sight. Let praise flow, for 
ever flow !" 

March 22. He had no sooner sat down to break- 
fast, than, like a man enraptured with the views of 
glory, he gave vent to his heart, in the mention of 
the following lines : — 

" They with the fatness of thy house 

Shall be well satisfied : 
From rivers of thy pleasure thou 

Wilt drin% to them provide."— Psalm xxxv . 8. 



150 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



He repeated these lines thrice, changing the words 
they and them into we and us, after which he added, 
u Oh, how strange, that rivers of pleasure should be 
provided for the murderers of God's Son, and the 
contemners of his word !" 

One of his sons alledging to him, that he seemed 
to be quite indifferent about things here ; he replied, 
" Indeed I am so ; only I would wish you my sons, 
my friends, my congregation, the church, and all the 
world, so far as is consistent with the decree of God, 
were with Christ ; — from all other things my mind is 
weaned : yet if the influence of God's Spirit were to 
be withdrawn for a moment, O how horribly my 
heart would blaspheme !" 

To one of his hearers, whose father was an emi- 
nent Christian, he tendered the following advice, 
" Well — mind these words, 4 Thou art my God ; I 
will prepare thee an habitation ; my father's God ; I 
will exalt thee.' W e should reckon him a madman 
that would throw away a father's estate, but he is 
much more foolish who throws away a father's God* 

Being told that the day w x as cold, and therefore his 
taking a ride would perhaps hurt him; he said, " O 
to win to the everlasting day of fellowship with 
Christ ! — then shall we reflect with pleasure on all 
our cold and sorrowful days here. 

66 For a poor man, a dying man, a man that hath 
much to do, there is no friend like Christ." 

Washing his face in the water, he said, " O to 
be washed in the water of life !" One remarking 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



151 



that he looked better than he did ; 44 It may be," re- 
plied he ; however, when I am conformed to the 
image of Christ, I shall look far better still." This 
last he uttered with a pleasant smile. 

Stepping into the chaise to take his ride, and find- 
ing his inability to do it himself without assistance, 
he desired his friends to look and see the propriety 
of that advice, 44 Let not the wise man glory in his 
wisdom ; neither let the mighty man glory in his 
might ; let not the rich man glory in his riches ; but let 
him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth 
and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exer- 
ciseth loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness 
in the earth." 

Upon his return from his ride, being asked how 
he was; he answered, 44 W ell, well for such a sinner !" 

To another, who inquired if he felt himself any 
easier ; he replied, 44 I cannot say that I am, but I 
am just as well as my heart could wish, if I were but 
free of sin." 

When a third acquaintance proposed a similar 
question ; he observed, 44 I am well ; for it is with 
both body and soul as it pleaseth God ; and what 
pleaseth him as a new covenant God, I desire to say, 
pleaseth me too." Reading to him a saying of Dr. 
Evans', showing his resignation to the rod ; 44 Well," 
said he, 44 that is just what I would have been at too: 
Oh, what kindness God has heaped upon me since 

the year ! what kind strugglings ! what kind 

smilings ! what kind overlookings of my outrageous 



152 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



wickedness ! but he hath showed himself to be God, 
and not man in his dealings with me. 

u In my mad attempts he hath often stopped me ; 
my mad wishes he hath refused to grant ; and my 
mad words he hath often seemed to overlook." 

Being asked if he remembered of his preaching on 
this text, Psalm lxxiii. 22 — 44 So foolish was I and 
ignorant, and as a beast before thee :" he replied, 
44 Yes, I remember it very well ; and I remember 
too, that when I described the beast, I drew the 
picture from my own heart. But oh, amazing con- 
sideration ! 4 Nevertheless, I am continually with 
God, and he holdeth me by my right hand !"' 

When the evening was come, and a friend pro- 
posed that his clothes should be taken off; he said, 
44 Very well, — I would not wish to be a man of strife, 
on the borders of eternity ; and especially when I am 
as sure that the redeeming God is mine own, as that 
there is an eternity." 

March 23. Conversing with him about a sermon 
which he once preached on these words, Isa. xlvi. 4, 
44 Even to your old age I am he," he observed, that 
he remembered discoursing on this text ; and then 
added, with a sort of cheerfulness, 44 I must say, that 
I never yet found God to break his word in this ; no, 
notwithstanding all the provocations which I have 
given him." 

Walking in the grass park, which is contiguous to 
his house, and finding that he was scarce able to move 
forward, by reason of a boisterous wind, he said to 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



153 



a relation who attended him, u I find that I am but 
weak, — but, 

" Soon may the storms of trouble beat 

The house of bondage down, 

And let the prisoner fly." — Watts. 

When he had taken his rest in the afternoon, he 
awakened with these words, u Oh, what a wonder 
that I have not slept into eternal life! rather, oh, 
what a wonder if I should thus sweetly sleep into 
eternal life ! Oh, what is this !" 

Having sat down to tea, he seemed to be so much 
under the constraining influence of the Holy Ghost, 
that he could not forbear making mention of the mer- 
cies of the Lord ; — u Oh," cried he, 44 God is love, 
there is no enmity in him at all! Again, there are 
three things which are very sweet ; — the sovereignty, 
the freeness, and the fulness of grace." In a short 
time after, he broke out in the following expressions, 
44 Oh, wonderful, wonderful subject — grace! Oh, 
wonderful, worderful means, by which it vents — the 
righteousness of Christ! and wonderful, wonderful 
issue — eternal life /" 

An acquaintance asking him if he really wished to 
be strong ; he replied, 14 I rather wonder that I have 
so much health and strength as I have : many of my 
fellow sinners, and many less sinners than I, are now 
roaring in the place of torment, without any hopes of 
deliverance, while my body is easy, and my heart is, 
in some measure, filled with his praise. The strength 
o 



154 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



which I wish now, is strength to walk up and down 
in the name of the Lord." 

March 24. At breakfast, seeing his friends sit- 
ting around, he said, 44 Oh, sirs! when shall I take 
the last Christian meal with you ? I am not weary 
of your company, nor have I any cause ; but I would 
fain be at that, 4 I will go to God's altar, even unto 
God my exceeding joy.' " 

♦ One of his little children coming to inquire for his 
welfare, he desired her to come near ; and, putting 
his hand upon her head, he spake to her in the fol- 
lowing manner : — 44 Now, my little dear, oh, mind 
to pray unto God : — your father must soon leave you ; 
but cry unto Jesus — 4 Thou art my father, and the 
guide of my youth — and then, though you will not 
have a room like this to come and see your father in, 
you will be taken to a far better Father's room." 

Being told that his eldest son was gone home, he 
took occasion to remark, how happy he should be, if 
the time of his departure into the eternal world were 
arrived. 44 Oh," said he, 44 that I were ready for 

going home too ? About the year . , these words 

were sweet to my soul— 4 There remaineth a rest for 
the people of God.'" 44 Are you not willing, sir," 
said one, 44 to live, and preach Christ?" He answered, 
44 I would love to preach Christ, if I live ; but, as to 
my life, I have no will in that natter ; I wish to have 
my inclinations subordinate to the will of God." 

A friend observing, that the gospel was said to be 
spreading in the Established Church of England — 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



155 



u Ob," said he, " well, well may it spread : the gos- 
pel is the source of my comfort, and every sinner is 
as welcome to this source as I. And, oh, how plea- 
sant, that neither great sins, nor great troubles, 
do alter these consolations! These words were 
once sweetiy impressed upon my heart, 6 Where sin 
abounded, grace did much more abound.' Oh, how 
it delighted me, to see God taking the advantage of 
my great sinfulness, to show his great grace! 

44 Oh, the sovereignty of God ! I think that he hath 
used more means to bring down the enmity and re- 
bellion of my heart, than he hath used for a hundred 
beside." 

Receiving a glass of wine, he observed, 44 How 
astonishing that God's Son should get gall and vine- 
gar to drink, when his thirst was great ; and yet that 
I should have such wine, when my thirst is by no 
means excessive !" Afterwards, on a similar occa- 
sion, he expressed himself to this purpose, 44 I long 
to drink of the new wine in my Father's kingdom, 
which will neither hurt head nor heart. Oh, that I 
had all the world around me, that I might tell them 
of Christ!" 

A friend reminding him, that through his instru- 
mentality, as a teacher of divinity, about sixty or 
seventy ministers were engaged in preaching Christ : 
he replied, 44 Had I ten thousand tongues, and ten 
thousand hearts, and were I employing them all in 
commendation of Christ, I could not do for his 
honour as he hath deserved, considering his kindness 
to such a sinner." 



156 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



When at tea, he gave vent to his grateful heart in 
the following words : " I am much obliged to you all, 
and particularly to you, (addressing his wife,) for 
your kindness to me ; yet I must go back to this, 
4 Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none 
upon earth that I desire besides thee.' 

44 4 He hateth putting away :' I am sure I have 
found that; for, oh, the provocations which I have 
given to God to cast me off ; and yet, to this day, he 
crowneth me with loving-kindnesses ! How astonish- 
ing the necessity of the love of the Son of God ! 
Once I thought that I got a ravishing sight of the 
necessity of his loving me, the sinner ; he said, 4 Other 
sheep I have ; them I must bring.' 

44 Oh, his kindness, his kindness ! I have shared 
of his frowns, as well as of his smiles ; — little frowns 
in comparison of what I deserved ! — yet when I even 
abused those frowns, as well as his smiles, he hath 
often overcome me with tender mercies." 

To some, who asked him if he was any worse, he 
made this reply: 44 I am weak, but I am well, con- 
sidering that I am such a sinner. I may say, 4 Good- 
ness and mercy have followed me all the days of my 
life;' and I hope to 4 dwell in the house of God for 
ever.' " 

Speaking to him about his supper, he cried out, 
44 Oh, to be there, where they 4 hunger no more, nor 
thirst any more ; but are filled with the fatness of 
God's house !' " 

One of his younger children he exhorted in this 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



157 



form : — u Now, cry to God, Thou art my Father : I 
do not think that I was much older than you, when 
God caused me to claim him; and, oh, God hath 
been good to me! It is long since he said, 4 Leave 
thy fatherless children upon me, and I will preserve 
them alive ; and let thy widows trust in me.' As I 
know not but I am dying of this distress, I have 
essayed to cast you on the Lord ; see that you cast 
yourself on him." 

March 25. 44 Long ago, I thought to have 
known by experience what is meant by 4 dying in the 
Lord that is a lesson, however, which I have not 
yet learned, but I will not quit hopes of learning it 
still. 

44 Were it not that the blood of Christ cleanseth 
from all sin, damnation would be my lot; but, 4 in him 
I have redemption through his blood, according to 
the riches of his grace.' And if Christ be glorified 
to the highest, and I ashamed to the lowest, I am 
content. 

44 These words were once sweet to my soul, 4 I am 
less than the least of his mercies.' I then thought 
that I was not worthy of the smallest favour, yet I 
aimed to apprehend the greatest gift. Oh, amazing 
scheme, redemption ! Amazing contrivance of it by 
God the Father ! amazing work of the Son pur- 
chasing it ! amazing application of it by the Holy 
Ghost ! and amazing possession of it by men ! 

44 It is now many years since God put me into the 
state, that I could not totally apostatize from him : 
o 2* 



158 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



though no thanks to me, for I have done my utmost 
against him, and yet he hath held me: I know not 
if there ever was a sinner, such a perverse wretch 
as I." 

One asking him, if he remembered who it was that 
said on his death-bed, That God had fulfilled all the 
promises in the 91st psalm to him but the last, u His 
eyes shall see my salvation," and now he was going 
to receive the accomplishment of that? he said, u No;" 
and added, raising his voice, 44 But I know a man to 
w T hom almost all the lines of that psalm have been 
sweet : I think, if ever God touched my heart, he 
went through that psalm with me." 

March 26. Being asked how he had slept, he re- 
plied in his common style, 44 Good rest for such a 
sinner." Said the friend, 44 You know that he giveth 
his beloved sleep." 44 It is true," replied he, 44 but 
sure God hath no cause to love me. 

4i Long ago, Jehovah silenced me with this, 4 Is 
there any thing too hard for the Lord ?' and to this 
day I have never found out the thing, though per- 
haps 1 have resisted his Spirit more than ever a sin- 
ner did. 

44 I wish to be at that point, 4 He hath put to me 
the everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and 
sure ;' for this is all my salvation, and all my desire." 

Expressing his resignation in this manner, 44 1 am 
entirely at the Lord's will ;" an acquaintance re- 
marked to him, that 44 such resignation was not the 
attainment of every Christian;" he answered, 44 This 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



159 



is rather what I would he at, than what I have 
attained." 

Happening to speak about the students of divinity 
who had been under his charge ; he said, " I wish 
them all more serious and diligent than ever I have 
been ; I hope, however, that God will not cast me 
off as a slothful and wicked servant : I am sure that 
he hateth putting away." 

A friend observing, that u It is an unspeakable 
mercy, that God does not deal with us according to 
our works;" he replied, u Ah, if God were to deal 
with men that way, (I will not except the apostle 
Paul,) the hottest place in hell would be the lot of 
us ministers ! 

" I think the early death of my father and mother, 
the death of a wife, and of children, in a remarkable 
manner, wrought for my good. I could not but 
notice, that when God took away these, he always 
supplied their room with himself. May he deal thus 
with you when I die ! 

Ck My mind is now so wavering, that I have little 
remembrance of what is past, little apprehension of 
what is present, and little foresight of what is future: 
but, oh, what a mercy, that when once the everlast- 
ing arms of Jesus are underneath, he will not lose his 
grip. 1 Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an 
everlasting salvation.' 

ct Here is a wonder, — a sinner saved by the blood 
of God's Son! There are wonders in heaven, and 
wonders in the earth ; but the least part of redemp- 
tion-work is more wonderful than them all." 



160 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



March 27. When some of his relations expressed 
their wishes for his recovery ; — 44 I wish," said he, 
44 that God may do what is most for his glory, and for 
the good of my soul. Were it left to me, whether 
I would choose life or death, I would not turn a 
straw for either, but would refer it wholly to God 
himself. All my days I have been rebelling against, 
and vexing, his Holy Spirit ; yet, I may say, this has 
been the sum of his conduct toward me, — 4 He 
wrought for his name's sake, that it should not be 
polluted.' 

" Oh, how God hath exemplified that law in his 
conduct toward me : 1 If thine enemy hunger, feed 
him ; if he thirst, give him to drink and in so 
doing I hope he hath heaped hot, melting coals of fire 
upon my head." 

One of his brethren in the ministry coming in to 
see him, he addressed him to this purpose : — 44 Now, 
I am obliged to you for your kindness ; but, oh, en- 
treat Christ to pay me a visit : I do you no wrong 
when I say, that I would not give half an hour's 
visit of Christ, for days, or months, or years, of 
yours. 

44 Any thing that I know about religion is this, 
That I have found weakness and wickedness about 
myself; and grace, mercy, and loveliness, about 
Jesus." 

When a friend observed to him, that we must run 
deeper and deeper in grace's debt ; he replied, 44 Oh, 
yes ; and God is a good creditor ; he never seeks 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



161 



back the principal sum, and indeed puts up with a 
poor annual rent." 

A number of his acquaintances sitting round him 
while he dined, he broke out with these words: 
44 Well, sirs, may we at last all meet at the table 
above, and enjoy a feast there : — no pain, no com- 
plaining, no trouble there ; but there is everlasting 
joy and peace. 

44 Oh, how strangely Christ hath stuck to me! 
perhaps not one in hell ever gave more opposition ; 
his cords of love, which he threw about me, I cast 
away ; the words which he spake to me 1 contemned; 
yet 1 think he hath made me to yield. 

u I never deserved another word but this, 4 Depart 
from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire but Christ 
hath spoken far other words to me; and, oh, how 
enlightening, melting, and healing, their influence 
hath been ! 

" What a mercy that God himself enableth us to 
believe ; for that unbelief of our hearts would call 
all the promises rank lies, if God did not stop its 
mouth." 

Asking if this was Saturday, he was told, No, it 
was Tuesday, and that he seemed to long for the 
Sabbath: 44 1 do," replied he, 44 weary for the Sabbath; 
and I would fain be at wearying for the everlasting 
Sabbath ; then shall I have no need of the assistance 
of preachers ; nor will I even need the blessed bible 
itself : God's face will serve me for preachers and 
bible too." 



162 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



March 28. u Oh, that is a strange text, 1 God 
so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not 
perish, but have everlasting life.' This declaration 
would set our hearts all on fire, if they were not in- 
fernally frozen ; and, indeed, closely applied by the 
Holy Ghost, it would set them on fire, even though 
infernally frozen. He once applied it with such 
power to my soul, that I think the application would 
have inflamed the heart of a devil, had it been so 
spoken to him." 

To his sons in the ministry, he repeated the exhor- 
tations which he gave them before. " Oh, labour, 
labour to win souls to Christ ; I will say this for 
your encouragement, that when the Lord led me out 
to be most earnest in this way, he poured in most 
comfort into my own heart ; so that he gave me my 
reward in my bosom : and when I have tried to help 
vacancies, the Lord hath repaid me well with glimpses 
of his glory. Were the Lord to make me young 
again, I think that I should study to devise other 
means for the gaining of souls than those which I 
have used, and to prosecute them with more activity 
than ever I did." 

To an acquaintance that inquired about his wel- 
fare, he gave this account : " I am but weak ; but it 
is delightful to find one's self weak in everlasting 
arms : oh, how much do I owe my Lord ! 

" What a mercy, that, once within the covenant, 
there is no getting out of it again : now I find my 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



163 



faculties much impaired." His relations answering, 
that it was only his memory which seemed to be 
affected with his distress : 44 Well," said he, 44 oh, 
how marvellous that God hath continued my judg- 
ment, considering how much I have abused it ; and 
continued my hope of eternal life, though I have mis- 
improved it ! ' But where sin hath reigned unto 
death, grace hath reigned through righteousness, 
unto eternal life, by Christ Jesus our Lord.' 

44 My memory is much failed ; but, were death 
once over, I will remember God's heaping of mercies, 
and my multiplied provocations ; and when I view 
the first on one side, and the last on the other, on a 
new-covenant footing, I will sing thanksgivings to 
God for ever." 

Speaking about sermons, he remarked, u So far as 
ever I observed God's dealings with my soul, the 
flights of preachers sometimes entertained me ; but 
it was scripture expressions which did penetrate my 
heart, and that in a way peculiar to themselves." 

To one who alleged, That if he were not happy 
afterwards, many had reason to be afraid, he gave a 
reply to the following purpose: — 44 I have no other 
ground to be happy than what is by redemption 
through the blood of Christ, and that is suited to 
you as well as to me." 

Expressing his resignation to the will of God, one 
of his relations observed, that he seemed to sway to 
one side, and his friends to another: 44 I own," said 
he, 44 that I do sway to one side, for I desire to de- 



164 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



part, and to be with Jesus, which is far better, and 
you selfishly wish me to live with you." The relation 
answering, that he hoped it was not wholly selfishness 
with them, — perhaps it was for the good of the 
church, that they desired his life prolonged ; he re- 
plied, 44 Indeed it may be selfishness with us both ; I 
confess it may be selfishness in me, to wish to be with 
Christ; but oh, that God had never seen any other 
selfishness in me than that ! 

44 Oh, what must Christ be in himself, when he 
sweetens heaven, sweetens scriptures, sweetens ordi- 
nances, sweetens earth, and even sweetens trials! 
Oh, what must that Christ be in himself! 

44 Oh, to have all our troubles sanctified to us ! and 
then, when in the eternal world, we will, with pleasure, 
look back and see, that through fire and water he 
brought us to the wealthy place." 

One of his children saying to him, 44 Father, we 
would fain have you to live ;" he answered, 44 Well, 
I believe so, but I would fain be with Christ." 44 But 
would you not wish to take us with you?" said the 
other. He replied, 44 It is not I, but Christ, who 
must do that; — however, as to my departure, I will 
not set the time of it to God ; he is wise, and I am 
a fool." Being told that he had done much good to 
souls since the year 1764, when he said he wished to 
be gone; he observed, 44 Oh, how strange, that God 
should make use of one so sinful as I to do good to 
others ! But I believe that he was wiser than me ; 
and I shall see this more clearly when in the eternal 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



165 



state." Reading to him Mr. Erskine's poem which 
is called The Work and Contention of Heaven, he 
remarked, 44 Well, though I should never wish to 
see contention in the church on earth, yet I should 
be willing to join in Ralph's contention above. W ere 
I once in heaven, I think that I would contend with 
the best of them ; and I know that our contentions 
there will not raise heats, but excite love to one 
another." When he received a glass of wine, he, 
with a smile, addressed his friends, — 44 Now, sirs, I 
wish you all new wine in the kingdom of the Father 
at last, and new wine from the kingdom of the Fa- 
ther, while you are on the way to it." 

At supper, with his usual cheerfulness, he men- 
tioned these lines : — 

" They with the fatness of thy house 
Shall be well satisfied," &c. 

and then added, 44 If earth transformed, partly by 
the instrumentality of men, is so delicious, oh, what 
must the fatness of God's house be, the flesh and 
blood of the Son of God !" 

March 29. Among the first words which he 
uttered were these ; 44 Oh, what a rebellious child I 
have been to God ! and oh, what a kind Father he 
hath been to me ! I need not go farther than my- 
self, to see that 44 God is love ;" for ever in my 
trouble he treats me as a mother doth her only 
sucking child." 

A friend happening to say, 44 I suppose you make 
p 



166 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



not your labours for the good of the church, the 
ground of your comfort ;" he, with a sort of uncom- 
mon earnestness, replied, " No, no, no! it is the 

FINISHED RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST which is the 

only foundation of my hope : I have no more de- 
pendance on my labours than on my sins. I rather 
reckon it a wonder of mercy that God took any of my 
labours off my hand: 4 Righteousness belongeth unto 
him, but unto me shame and confusion of face.' If 
the Lord were to render unto me according to my 
works, the hottest place in hell would be my reward; 
yet, by Christ's works, eternal life to the most worth- 
less wretch, is but a suitable recompense." 

Taking a walk through the house, as he stepped 
along, he cheerfully repeated these lines in the 
eighty-ninth Psalm 

" In brightness of thy face, O Lord, 

They ever on shall go ; 
They in thy name shall all the day 

Rejoice exceedingly ; 
And in thy righteousness shall they 

Exalted be on high." 

" Oh that will be sweet, when the redeemed of 
the Lord shall walk thus in heaven," said he ; and 
then added, with tears in his eyes, u And I am sure, 
that I may think shame to appear among them ; but 
the more shame and disgrace I deserve, the more 
glory God will get. Oh, what strange things God 
hath done to save me ! By afflictions on my own 
body, by the deaths of my parents, by bringing me 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



167 



to ordinances, by reproofs of conscience, he hath 
striven with me for my salvation." Walking out 
to the grass park, and happening to speak about the 

A r meeting house, which is at a small distance 

from it, he could not forbear showing his zeal for 
the good of souls. 41 I would be happy," said he, 

" if my A r brother had ten for my one, as 

crowns of joy at the last day ; though I must say, 
that I would wish to have as many as possible ; but, 
oh, it will be a strange honour for such a wretch as 
I, to have half a dozen." 

March 30. To one who inquired about his 
welfare, he said, " I sit here an instance of human 
frailty; and, I would fain add, an amazing instance 
of God's kindness in redemption." Some persons 
speaking about an ill bargain in his hearing, he took 
occasion to remark, " Oh, how happy to have an in- 
terest in Christ ! that is a bargain which will never 
break ; and by that, we, though naturally heirs of 
hell, are entitled unto eternal life." Often he cried 
out, u I find that I am not strong ; but, oh, it is a 
wonder that I am not damned ! — I bless God, that 
at least I know thus much about religion — I am con- 
vinced that I am as a beast before God." 

March 31. "I remember that about the year 

, I was breathing out slaughter against the Lord 

Jesus ; but that was always the turn of the tale, 
1 Yet I obtained mercy.' If I were offered the 
crown of Britain, instead of the fellowship with 
Christ, which I then enjoyed, I would not hesitate a 
moment about choosing the latter. 



168 



LIFE AND RE 31 A INS OF 



" Oh, the debt of grace is a strange kind of debt ! 
Were I, even now, two or three hundred pounds in 
debt to any man, it would considerably distress me ; 
but the views of my debt to free grace, remarkably 
refresh my heart." 

April 1. " Were I once in heaven, a look of 
Christ will cure my broken memory, and all my other 
weaknesses. There I shall not need wine, nor spirits, 
to recruit me ; no, nor shall I mind them, but as 
Christ was through them kind to me." 

Seeing the fire stirred, he said, " Oh, to have my 
heart stirred, and set in an eternal flame of love to 
that dear Son of God, of whom I think I can say, 
4 he loved me, and gave himself for me;' and I am 
sure, in point of worthlessness, he might as well have 
loved Beelzebub himself." 

April 3. Sitting down in the park, and the sun 
shining bright upon his face, he cried out in a kind 
of transport, 44 Oh, how pleasant to be for ever behold- 
ing the Sun of Righteousness in heaven, and how T 
pleasant, even in time, to see him by faith !" 

One of his brethren in the ministry paying him a 
visit, and saying, among other things, 44 Sir, we 
could not well want you." He replied, 44 Oh, yes, 
you could easily want me, and I would wish to be 
with Jesus ; meantime I am wholly at the Lord's 
disposal. If the Lord would make me useful in the 
church, I have no objections against living ; but if 
not, I would rather die." Upon his friend observing 
that the Lord seemed to be very kind to him ; he 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



169 



said, u Yes, God hath been heaping favours upon 
the sinner these forty years past ; and I will say, to 
his honour, that he hath made my days of affliction 
always the happiest ; indeed, I think that I have sel- 
dom had very sweet days, except when I have met 
with affliction one w r ay or other." Being asked 
by his brother, If he felt no uneasiness at leaving his 
family and congregation; he answered, u I cannot 
say that I feel any such uneasiness ; not but that I 
regard them ; but I know that a God in Christ can 
infinitely more than supply my room. I might be 
spared, and be of little use to them ; but God will 
be infinitely useful. My parents were taken from 
me when I w r as young, and God hath been far better 
to me since, than they could have been." " What 
think you," said the friend, " of the present state of 
the church ?" He replied, 4t The church at present 
is in a very poor condition, but the Lord can re- 
vive her. I have often found, that when wicked 
lusts and wicked devils, have caused great disorder 
in my heart, the Lord hath brought order out of 
confusion. This partly encourages me to believe, 
that though wicked men and wicked devils cause dis- 
order in the church, yet the Lord will make all 
things to work together for good, to his own elect. I 
do not expect to see it ; yet it is the joy of my heart, 
that the time is coming, when the kingdoms of this 
world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ : — dead churches shall yet be 
quickened; apostate churches shall yet be recovered; 
p 2 



170 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



and churches shall be planted where there were none 

before." 

April 4. Finding himself very feeble, he ob- 
served, " My legs are of little use, my head is of 
little use, and my hands are of little use ; but my 
God in Christ is the same to me now as ever." 

Speaking about the synod, which was to meet in 
the month of May, he said that he believed he should 
not be able to attend ; and then added, 11 Oh, if the 
Spirit of God would bring me to the general synod 
of the church of the first-born, that would be far 
better; — no idle words, no angry speeches, no sinful 
ignorance, no haughty pride there ! After all, it is 
a mercy that Jesus, the great Manager of the church, 
can overrule even our contentions here for his own 
glory." 

April 5. When he took his walk in the park, 
he pointed to several spots, where he said, that his 
soul had been ravished with the views of free grace : 
M Yea," said he, " on certain occasions, my soul has 
been so transported there, that, as the apostle speaks, 
4 whether I was in the body or out of the body, I 
could scarce tell;" and perhaps it is superstitious in 
me, but I confess that I have a peculiar love to these 
very spots." 

After he came into his house, and found himself 
tired with his walk, he expressed the wish of his 
heart in these words ; " Oh, that will be a pleasant 
journey, 4 The ransomed of the Lord shall return, 
and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



171 



upon their heads ; they shall obtain joy and gladness, 
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.' " 

Talking about mercy, he observed, 44 I could wish 
to live and die a deep, deep debtor to mercy ; and 
that none of my works should ever be mentioned, 
but as manifestations of mercy, in enabling such a 
sinner to do any thing for the honour of the God of 
mercy, and for promoting the work of mercy in the 
welfare of others." 

To an acquaintance, who came to ask for his wel- 
fare, he spake in the following manner : — u Well, 
you see I am a prisoner here in my own house ; but, 
oh, that is a happy (I do not choose to call it an 
imprisonment, but a) sort of confinement, in a Re- 
deemer's arms, and in the covenant of grace." 

April 6. 44 How true is that saving, 4 Man in 
his best state is altogether vanity !' I am not one of 
the oldest, yet I find myself exceedingly feeble ; — 
however, although I am weak, I have reason to be 
thankful I am not damned. 

44 Oh, the sovereignty of God in permitting some, 
both of angels and of men, to fall into misery ; while 
it secures the happiness of the rest to all eternity!" 

As an evidence of the tenderness of his conscience, 
he frequently gave this hint to his consort: — 44 1 hope 
you will take care, when I am speaking to any ac- 
quaintance, that I do not say any thing trifling to 
them: it is not my honour that I mind in this, but 
I should be vexed, now that I am a dying man, if I 
should say any thing to the dishonour of Christ, to 



172 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



the grief of the godly, or to be a stumbling-block to 
the wicked : indeed it would be ill on my part to act 
thus." 

April 9. Being asked, how he was now, he re- 
plied, " I am weak; but the motto of each of my 
days is, 4 He hath not dealt with us as we have sinned, 
neither rewarded us according to our iniquities.'" 

Sitting down in the park, and finding his eyes un- 
able to bear the bright shining of the sun, he re- 
marked, 14 Oh, how pleasant to be in that place, where 
they are so overcome with the glory of the Sun of 
Righteousness, that they have to cover their faces 
with their wings !" 

Having occasion to converse about young men 
coming out to the ministry, he observed, " Well, 
though pride prevails much in my heart, yet I think, 
I would trample it thus far under my feet, as that I 
would be glad to see all my students, and not only 
they, but all the faithful ministers of Jesus, bringing 
hundreds or thousands of souls with them into heaven, 
though I should have but five or six." 

Taking him into his meeting-house, he looked 
round him, and said, u Now, weak as I am, I would 
try to preach yet, if I had none to preach in my 
stead. Oh, what sweet fellowship with Christ I have 
had here ! and that pulpit hath been the best place 
in all the house to me." 

A young surgeon paying him a visit, he thought it 
proper to tender some advices to him ; among other 
things, he observed, that persons in this profession 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



173 



had excellent opportunities of conversing with dying 
sinners ahout their eternal state ; that their patients 
would probably pay more attention to religious hints 
from them, than from some others ;— that while they 
gave cures to others, they should never forget to 
apply to Christ for spiritual healing themselves. As 
he was evidently turning hoarse with speaking, one 
of his relations reminded him, that he was exhausting 
himself, and begged him to forbear for a little. He 
made this reply — 44 Well, I shall say no more even 
now ; but, oh, to be at that, — 

4 My mouth the praises of the Lord 

To publish cease shall never ; 
Let all flesh bless his holy name 

For ever and for ever.'" — Psalm cxlv. 21. 

May 6. Lying on his back in the bed, and being 
exceedingly faint, he observed, with a low tone of 
voice, 44 Here is a lecture on that text, 4 Vanity of 
vanities ; all that cometh is vanity and vexation of 
spirit ;' for what a poor useless creature am I now ! 
But, oh, what a mercy that Christ can raise glory 
to himself out of mere vanity !" In uttering these 
last words his heart seemed to be quite overcome. 

When a friend alleged to him, that he appeared 
to be sunk in his spirits ; he replied, 44 1 am so ; but 
it is not in the least through any terror, but just 
through weakness." 

Being asked if he was not afraid to enter into a 
world of spirits, he answered, 44 No, a persuasion 



174 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



that Christ is mine, makes me think, that when I 
appear in that world, as a new incomer, all the spirits 
there w T iil use me well on Christ's account." 

It being remarked by an acquaintance, that con- 
sidering him as a dying man, he seemed to be as 
easy as he well could be ; " Yes," said he, " I really 
am so ; for in my body I am not much pained, and 
as to my mind, it is composed, or rather cheerful : I 
mean not that I have what the world calls mirth, 
but I possess a sort of cheerfulness which ariseth 
from views of certain texts of scripture." 

May 7. 44 As I have had fulness all my days, I be- 
lieve that I could not now easily bear with pinching 
want ; yet I think to publish the gospel of Jesus, I 
could willingly meet with want or any thing else." 

Riding in a chaise, and observing how pleasantly 
the corn and the grass were growing, he cried out, 
" Oh, I think that I should love to see that promise 
accomplished, ' The wilderness, and the solitary 
place, shall be glad for them ; and the desert shall 
rejoice and blossom as the rose ; it shall blossom 
abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. 
The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it ; the 
excellency of Carmel and Sharon : they shall see the 
glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.' 
Oh, I should love to see all this ere I die, though I 
would wish that it may not be long till the event 
take place. I should love, when I depart to heaven, 
to be able to tell this news to the redeemed millions, 
that the Holy Ghost had been remarkably poured out 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



.175 



in East Lothian, and that there was not now a family 
in which the worship of God was not observed. I 
dare say it delights the redeemed above, to hear of 
Christ's glory being displayed, and of souls being 
saved, on earth." 

When he observed the concern which his wife 
showed about his welfare, he said, 44 Now, no doubt 
you do not wish to hear about my departure ; but 
thy 4 Maker is thy husband ; the Lord of hosts is 
his name ;.' he can infinitely more than supply the 
want of me." 

May 8. Passing by the door of his study, and 
looking into it, one observed, 44 Sir, you never go in 
there now;" he answered, 44 No; the closet I wish 
now, is the place of God's immediate presence ; 
there the face of God will serve me instead of all my 
books." 

Addressing himself to one of his sons, he said, 
44 Now, I am easy, whether ever you or any of my 
family be what the world call rich, but I should wish 
you all to be fearers of God. Next to seeing Christ 
as he is, I think that I would desire to see you, and 
hundreds at your back, all debtors to free grace. 
Oh, I would be happy to say, 4 Lord, here am I, 
and the children which thou hast given me.' 

44 Ever since God dealt properly with my heart, I 
never had any comfort in a thought that my sins were 
little, but in the belief that the virtue of Christ's 
blood was infinite — 4 blood that cleanseth from all 
sin and in the consideration of God's mercy being 
higher than the heavens." 



176. 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



14 I once thought that text, c I will have mercy on 
whom I will have mercy,' had just been made for 
me; and that it was so full of grace, just that it 
might suit ray condition. Were it possible for his 
majesty and I to become young again ; and were it 
left to my choice, whether I would have his lot or 
my own, I would, without hesitation, choose my own; 
if I have not got such grand entertainment for the 
body, I have got feasts on texts of scripture, the like 
of which, perhaps, he never obtained — ' Goodness 
and mercy have followed me.' " 

Talking about death, he observed, " It might be 
written on my coffin, — 1 Here lies one of the cares 
of Providence, who early wanted both father and 
mother, and yet never missed them.'" 

May 9. Speaking about submission to the rod of 
God, he made the following remarks : " I would not 
wish that foolish question ever put to me, Would 
you go to hell if that were the Lord's will ? for it is 
God's promise securing my salvation, that has much 
influence in making me resigned. God said to me, 
' I am the Lord thy God ;' and if he were not to be 
mine for ever, he would forfeit his word, which is 
impossible." 

Being desired by a friend, to give an assignation 
of his right to his books, for the good of his family, 
he replied, 14 No, no ; I would not wish that ever 
there should be the least appearance of avarice of the 
world in me ; 1 can trust my family to Providence ; 
and if, when I am in heaven, it appear that there 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



177 



was one converted by means of any thing that ever 
I wrote, I will mark down an hundred pounds ; if 
there should be two, I will say, there is two hundred 
pounds, and if twenty, there is something of more 
value than two thousand pounds ; — that is the re- 
ward which I wish." 

Two young ladies coming in to see him, he asked 
how they were : upon there answering, Very well, 
he said, 44 4 It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not 
consumed and, oh, never say that you are very well 
to your own consciences, until you have good evidence 
of your interest in Christ. Be earnest to have ac- 
quaintance with Jesus ; no connexion so glorious as 
union with Christ ; no pleasure like that which is 
enjoyed in fellowship with him." 

To one who observed, that some who saw him 
thought that he was rather better, he replied, 44 All 
my wish is, that if God spare me, I may have gifts 
to serve him while I live ; and, if I die, I wish to 
praise him while I have any being." 

May 10. Hearing some talk about the endorsing 
of a bill, he said, 44 Oh, how pleasant ! the bills of 
God's promises are my heritage : I have often for- 
gotten them ; but I am sure that Jehovah minds 
them, and I know too, that the Spirit of God will 
never deceive me." 

Talking concerning his weakness, he observed, 
44 God deals so tenderly with me in my affliction, 
that indeed I think the strokes, as it were, go nearer 
his heart than they do mine." 

Q 



178 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



May 11. 14 The command is, 4 Owe no man any 
thing.' What a mercy that there is no such precept 
as this, Owe a Saviour nothing; or even this, Study 
to owe him as little as possible. 

" I confess that I would not love to stand at our 
town cross, with a paper on my breast, declaring that 
I was a bankrupt to men ; but, oh, I think that I 
should love to stand in the most public place of hea- 
ven, having all the redeemed pointing to me as the 
greatest sinner that ever was saved ; yea, I think 
their very staring at me as the chief debtor to free 
grace, would rejoice my heart." 

May 14. When one observed to him, that his 
memory seemed to be much failed, he replied, 44 It 
is so ;" and then shutting his eyes, he, in a devout 
manner presented this prayer: — 44 Lord, I am a 
stranger on this earth, hide not thy commandments 
from me." Some alleging, that he would not get 
out in his chair, on account of the wetness of the 
day ; 44 W ell,'" said he, 44 if God would send his new- 
covenant chariot, death, and transport me to hea- 
ven ere night, I should be happy, let the day be 
what it will. 

44 Oh, what a mercy, that my admission into eter- 
nal life, does not in the least depend on my ability 
for any thing; but I, as a poor sinner, will win in 
leaning on Christ as the Lord my righteousness ; 
on Christ, 4 made of God unto me righteousness, 
sanctincation, and redemption !' I have nothing to 
sink my spirits but my sins ; and these need not sink 
me either, since the great God is my Saviour.' 1 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



179 



To one that inquired for his welfare, he said, 
44 I am sitting here, trying to wait for the salvation 
of God. I should love that my departure was nearer 
than perhaps you would wish ; — but I will not 
murmur." 

Taking a walk from one room to another, he, in 
a sort of transport, cried, " Oh, it will be pleasant to 
enter into Christ's light room above ! Sure, when I am 
there, and when I reflect on the opportunities which 
I enjoyed in this world, I shall wonder at myself as 
a fool in the misimprovement of them ; but what 
shall I say; when Christ is the way to heaven, 'a 
wayfaring man, though a fool, cannot err therein.' " 

Advising a young man to honour his father and 
mother, and being told by a friend that the persons 
which he named were dead, he took occasion to make 
the following remark : 44 Oh, what a mercy, that you 
can never tell me that my friend, Jesus, is dead, when 
so many of my earthly acquaintances are gone ; if 
you say of him that he was dead, I can answer, but 
now he 4 is alive, and lives for evermore ; and hath 
the keys of hell and of death.'" 

June 4. When he heard the bells ring, he asked 
what they meant ; and upon being informed that it 
was the king's birth-day, he said, 44 Oh, when will that 
glorious solemnity arrive, when all the artillery of 
heaven shall be let off : that day of Jesus, when 
angels and saints shall join in a general shout to his 
honour. Then fires shall be in the heavens, and fires 
on the earth ; 4 the heavens shall pass away with a 



180 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
heat : the earth also, and the works that are therein, 
shall be burnt up.' " 

Some time after, observing the bells continuing to 
ring, 44 Ob," said he, " blessed be God that we have 
abetter king's birth-day to celebrate ! 4 Unto us was 
born, in the city of David, a Saviour, who is Christ 
the Lord.' On account of that event, the gospel 
bells have been sounding for ages past, and they will 
ring louder and louder still. Oh, a Saviour ! the 
Son of God our Saviour! Oh, his kindness! his 
kindness ! a Saviour ! a Husband to sinners, and to 
me r 

Conversing about the manner in which the gospel 
call is addressed to men, he observed, " It has been 
my comfort these twenty years, that, not only sensible 
sinners, but the most stupid, are made welcome to 
believe in Christ/' 

Throwing up his victualsl;o a great degree, as soon 
as he was able to speak, he said, 44 Well, I am sure 
that God will not kill me, till my work is done ; and 
when that is over, I would not wish to live any longer. 
But, oh, to have my soul filled -with Christ's new wine 
in the kingdom of heaven, I know that I would not 
throw up that !" 

When he lay down on his bed, one asked him how 
he was now ; he answered, "I lie here in the ever- 
lasting arms of a gracious God." 44 Are you not 
afraid," said the friend, 44 to appear at the tribunal 
of God ?" He replied, 44 Were I looking to give the 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



181 



account in my own person, considering my sins, indeed 
I might be terrified : but then I can view Christ the 
Judge as my advocate and my accomptant, and I know 
that I do not owe more debt than he has paid." 

June 5. An acquaintance going to leave him, 
and saying, that probably he would soon see some of 
his brethren in the ministry. 44 Tell them," said he, 
" that it is my desire that they may labour to win souls 
to Christ, for now I am not able, though ever so 
willing : meantime you must say, that Christ hath 
been a kind master to me. Many a visit he hath 
given to me already, and I expect to be with him in 
heaven by and by. Tell them too, that I desire their 
prayers, that, with submission to the divine will, I 
may depart to be with Christ, which is far better." 

Being urged to take his breakfast, 44 I will eat," 
said he, 44 as much as I am able; the food is very 
good in itself, and it is a memorial of my spiritual 
provision, and I love it not the worse on that ac- 
count." 

When he coughed sore, and a relation expressed 
his grief to see him in that distress; 44 Why not 
cough ?" replied he, 44 oh, it would be happy, if each 
of these coughs and thro wings, would hasten me to 
God as my exceeding joy." 

One remarking to him, that his tongue seemed to 
be very foul ; he answered, 44 It may be so, but what 
a mercy that it is not tormented in flames ! Oh, the 
power of free grace, that can make a tongue, which 
is a world of iniquity, an everlasting praiser of Christ 
Q2 



182 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



in heaven ! But what need I say, 4 for the heart is 
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,' and 
yet it is made an eternal habitation of God and the 
Lamb !" 

When he came in from his ride, he was scarce set 
down, when he began expressing his admiration of the 
love of God ; 44 Oh, the sovereignity of grace ! How 
strange that I, a poor cottager's son, should have a 
chaise to ride in ; and what is far more wonderful, I 
think God hath often given me rides in the chariot of 
the new-covenant : in the former case, he hath raised 
me from the dunghill, and set me with great men ; 
but in the latter, he hath exalted the man, sinful as a 
devil, and made him to sit with the Prince of the 
kings of the earth. Oh, astonishing! astonishing! 
astonishing !" 

Being offered a little wine, he objected against 
taking it ; 44 For," said he, 44 I am afraid that it will 
hurt me, and I would not wish to hurt that head, 
which, as well as my heart, is Christ's; let him do 
with it as he pleaseth, but I would not wish to have 
any hand in hurting it myself. 

44 No doubt I would love to be at my public work 
again ; and had it been any other than God that had 
restrained me, I would not have taken it well, but as 
it is the Lord, I desire to submit. 

44 Were God to present me with the dukedom of 
Argyle, on the one hand, and the being a minister of 
the gospel, with the stipend which I have had, on the 
other, so pleasant hath the ministry been to me, not- 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



withstanding all my weakness and fears of little suc- 
cess, that I would instantly prefer the last." 

To some acquaintances who came to visit him, he 
said, u Here, sirs, take warning that ye must die. 
Now, I think it is come to dying work with me ; 
but, if Jesus hold me up, though I die, all is well: 
4 Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.'" 

A minister asking him what was the best method a 
person could take, when a consideration of his own 
sinfulness terrified him in preaching ? He made this 
reply, — 44 Attempt to believe, — just as a sinner, — as 
the chief of sinners. These promises have been 
sweetest to me which extend to men, if they are but 
out of hell. 4 It is a faithful saying and worthy of all 
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to 
save sinners, of whom I am chief.' Once these words 
were sweet to my soul ; I thought, ill as I was, I 
could not be worse than the chief of sinners : con- 
science said, that I was the most wicked wretch that 
ever breathed ; and that I had showed myself to be 
such, especially by rebelling against convictions, and 
by trampling on Christ's alluring words : yet since 
Christ came to save sinners, even the chief, why, 
thought I, should I except myself." 

When he rose to take a walk through the house, 
he found himself so feeble, that he was in danger of 
falling almost at every step ; however, he comforted 
himself and his friends in this manner : — 44 I am now 
very weak; but were I in heaven, 4 I shall renew 
my strength ; there shall I mount up with wings as 



184 



LIFE AND REMAINS Of 



an eagle : I shall run, and not weary ; I shall walk, 
and not faint.' No staggerings there." 

After family worship in the evening, he observed, 
u Oh, it would be pleasant if our experiences in or- 
dinances were such here, as that they would fit us 
for the exercises of heaven ; our prayers here, as 
stretching forth of our desires for the enjoyment 
of God, and of the Lamb ; and our praises here, a 
tuning ot our hearts for the songs above." 

June 6. One asking him this question, " Sir, 
does it not strike you with fear, when you think of 
being confined in a grave ?" He answered, " No ; 
such is my esteem of Christ, that I think I am easy, 
though they should bury me in a dunghill, if my soul 
were but with him." 44 But," said the other, "are 
you not sorry to part with all your family ?" He re- 
plied, 44 I must own, that I have a concern about my 
wife and children ; but when my heart enters pro- 
perly into these words, 4 Be with the Lord,' the 
leaving of them diminishes into a very small point ; 
and although natural affection for them is as strong 
as ever, I hope that when I am away, Christ will 
far more than supply my room to them, and then, 
you see, we shall be better on all hands." 

Seeing his relatives assisting him under his weak- 
ness, he often said, 44 I really wonder at the kindness 
of men to me ; but especially I am amazed, when I 
reflect that it is all the kindness of my God through 
them." 

When on any occasion his little children were ga* 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



185 



thered around him, be used to commend his Lord 
in such words as these : — 44 There is none so glorious 
as Christ ! — he is altogether lovely ; — if you could 
put all the gold and silver into one heap, the glory 
of Christ would far exceed all : I say this, having, I 
think, seen Jesus; but as yet, I have only seen him 
through a glass darkly; after this, I hope to see him 
face to face." 

To one of his sons in the ministry, be gave the 
following advice : — 44 Oh, try to run as deep in 
Christ's debt as possible, and take his own way of 
paying, viz., by acknowledging his kindness; and 
when you mind your own debt, remember your fa- 
ther's debt too : say, 4 Thou art my God, I will 
praise thee ; my father's God, I will exalt thee.' 
Again, oh, labour, labour to win souls to Christ ; 
souls are well worth the winning ; and Christ is far 
more worthy of winning them too. It gives me 
pleasure now, to think that I did not indulge myself 
in idleness in my Master's service ; not but that I 
was idle, only I do not remember of indulging myself 
in it." 

June 15. A friend saying to him, 44 You are 
not now travelling to Stow sacrament, as you used 
to do about this time of the year;" he replied to this 
purpose:— 44 No; I wish to be travelling to God, as 
my exceeding joy ; in the meantime, I must say, 
that at Stow I have had such sweet hours, that 
neither Christ nor I shall ever forget." 

Being asked what he thought of free grace, after 



186 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



living so many years a minister, 61 I," said he, 
4 1 have altered my mind about many things ; but I am 
now of the same mind that ever I was, as to grace 
and salvation through Christ." 

44 Where are now all your anxieties about the 
church?" said one; he replied, " I have left my 
anxiety about it, and about every thing else, on the 
Lord ; and, indeed, were it not for a God in my na- 
ture, I would reckon the present case of the church 
very hopeless ; but in the view of Christ, I am per- 
suaded that she will yet remarkably revive on earth." 

June 17. He was now become extremely weak; 
but as the outward man decayed, so the inward man 
was strengthened day by day. 

Lying on his bed, and scarce able to speak, he 
looked up to one of his brethren in the ministry, and 

said, with a smile, 44 O Mr. , 4 the Lord is my 

strength and my song ; and he also is become my 
salvation."' 

June 18. Seeing him much distressed with the 
failing of nature, a friend said to him, 44 Sir, I 
hope the Lord is not forsaking you now ;" he an- 
swered, 44 No ; God is an unchanging rock." 

Being asked by another how he was, he replied, 
44 Oh, it is strange that the Lord Jesus encourageth 
us to pray even at the last !" 

Fixing his eyes on two or three of his relations 
at his bedside, he addressed them in the most af- 
fecting manner; 44 Oh, sirs! dying work is serious! 
serious work indeed ! and that you will soon find, as 
strong as you are." 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



187 



June 19. He seemed to be frequently engaged 
in speaking ; but, owing to the change of his voice, 
it was only a very few of his words which could be 
understood. 

Upon a friend saying to him, u Sir, you seem to 
be sore distressed ;" it was thought that he made 
this answer ; 41 The Lord hath his own way of car- 
rying on his own work." 

The last words which he was heard to utter were 
these ; u my christ !" 

About four hours after, he fell asleep in Jesus, 
June 19, 1787. 

"Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; 
for the end of that man is peace," 



THE 



. AUTHOR'S DYING ADVICE 

TO HIS 

CONGKEGATION. 



I My dear hearers, — Having, through the patience 
and mercy of God, long laboured among you, not as 
I ought — far, very far from it — but as I could; I 
must now leave you, to appear before the judgment- 
seat of Christ, to give an account of my stewardship. 
You cannot say that I ever appeared to covet any 
man's silver, or gold, or apparel, or ever uttered one 
murmur about what you gave me ; or that I sought 
yours, not you. You cannot charge me with idling 
away my devoted time in vain chat, either with you 
or others, or with spending it in worldly business, 
reading of plays, romances, or the like. If I had, 
what an awful appearance should I soon have before 
my all-seeing Judge. You cannot pretend that I 
spared either body or mind in the service of your 
souls ; or that I put you off with airy conceits of 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



189 



man's wisdom, or any thing else than the truths of 
God. Though I was not ashamed, as I thought 
Providence called me, to give you hints of the truths 
presently injured, and the support of which is the 
declared end of the Secession; yet I laboured chiefly 
to show and inculcate upon your consciences the 
most important truths concerning your sinfulness 
and misery, and the way of salvation from both, 
through Christ ; and laboured to hunt you out of all 
your lying refuges, and give your consciences no rest 
but in Christ, and him crucified. The delight of 
my soul was to commend him and his free and great 
salvation to your souls, and to direct and encourage 
you to receive and walk in him. I call heaven and 
earth to record against you this day, that I laboured 
to set death and life, blessing and cursing, before 
you, and to persuade you to choose life, that ye 
might live. By the grace of God I have endea- 
voured, however poorly, to live holy, justly, and un- 
blameably, among you. And now, I leave all these 
discourses, exhortations, instructions, and examples, 
as a testimony for the Lord against you, if you lay 
not your eternal salvation to heart as the one thing 
needful, the better part that shall not be taken from 
you. 

But I have no confidence in any of these things 
before God as my Judge. I see such weakness, such 
deficiency, such unfaithfulness, such imprudence, 
such unfervency and unconcern, such selfishness, in 
all that I have done as a minister or a Christian, as 

R 



190 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



richly deserves the deepest damnation of hell. I have 
no hope of eternal happiness but in Jesus' blood, which 
cleanseth from all sin ; — in redemption through his 
blood, even the forgiveness of my sins, according to 
the riches of his grace. It is the everlasting cove- 
nant of God's free grace, well ordered in all things 
and sure, that is all my salvation, and all my desire. 

Now I die firmly persuaded of the truth of these 
things which I preached unto you. I never preached 
unto you any other way of salvation than I essayed 
to use for myself. I now, when dying, set to my 
seal that God is true. After all that I have said of 
the sinfulness of your hearts, I have not represented 
to you the ten thousandth part of their vileness and 
guilt. Knowing, in some measure, the terrors of the 
Lord, I endeavoured to persuade you that it was a 
fearful thing to fall into the hands of his wrath : but 
who knows the power of his wrath ! Knowing, in 
some measure, the deceitfulness of sin, and devices 
of Satan, I laboured to warn you of them. But what 
especially delighted my heart was to set before you 
the excellencies, the love, the labours, of our Re- 
deemer, and God in him, giving himself, and apply- 
ing himself to sinful men ; and to represent to you 
the work of God on the heart in the day of his power, 
and the exercise of the heart in its diversified frames. 
What I saw, and tasted, and handled, both of the 
bitter and the sweet in religion, delivered I unto you. 
Little as I am acquainted with the Lord, I will leave 
it as my dying testimony, that there is none like 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



191 



Christ ; there is nothing like fellowship with Christ. 
I dare aver, before God, angels, and men, that I 
would not exchange the pleasures of religion which 
I have enjoyed, especially in the days of my youth, 
for all the pleasures, profits, and honours of this 
world, since the creation till this present moment, 
ten thousand times told. For what, then, would I 
exchange my entrance into the joy of my Lord, and 
being for ever with him ? Truly God hath been 
good to a soul that but poorly sought him. Oh, 
what would he be to yours, if you would earnestly 
seek him! with what heart-ravishing power and grace 
he hath testified against my wicked and unbelieving 
heart, that he is God, even my God ? And now, 
whom have I in heaven but him ? nor is there any 
on earth whom I desire besides him. My heart and 
flesh fail, but God is the strength of my heart and 
my portion for ever. Left early by both father and 
mother, God hath taken me up, and been the orphan's 
stay. He hath given me the heritage of those that 
fear him. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant 
places. I have a goodly heritage. God is the por- 
tion of mine inheritance, and of my cup ; he main- 
taineth my lot : yea, mine own God is he ; my God 
that doth me save. 

Had I ten thousand worlds in my offer, and these 
secured to me for ever, they should be utterly con- 
temned. Doubtless, I count all things but loss for 
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my 
Lord ; and I do count them but dung to win him, 
r 2 



192 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



not having mine own righteousness, which is of the 
law, but the righteousness of God, which is through 
faith. 

Now, when I go to give my account to God, think 
what it must be ! Alas ! must it be, that in too great 
conformity to your careless neighbours, some did not 
attend the means of grace at examinations, meetings 
for prayer, and spiritual conference, as ye ought ? 
Must it be, that after labouring so many years among 
you, I left less lively religion in the congregation 
than 1 found in it at first ? Must it be, that ye were 
called, but ye made light of the marriage with Christ, 
and of his great salvation ? Must it be, that ye con- 
tented yourselves with a form of godliness, without 
knowing the power of it ? Must it be, that some 
few, trampling on their most solemn engagements, 
forsook me, having loved this present world ? Must 
it be, that others were not careful to train up their 
seed for the Lord ? Must it be, that ye often heard 
the most searching sermons, or the most delightful, 
and went away quite unaffected ? Or must it be that 
ye were awakened ; that your souls looked to Jesus, 
and were enlightened ; that ye believed with your 
heart unto salvation ; that ye harrowed in the seed 
of the truth, which I sowed upon you, by serious 
meditation and fervent prayer ; that ye laboured to 
win souls to Christ ? Alas ! I fear many of you will 
go down to hell with a lie in your right hand ; go 
down to hell, with all the gospel sermons and exhor- 
tations you ever heard in your conscience, to assist it 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



193 



to upbraid, gnaw, and torment you! My dearly be- 
loved hearers, shall I see you next in everlasting fire, 
prepared for the devil and his angels ? Shall I see 
these faces all in flames at the last day, and these eyes, 
which often looked at me, looking lively bright horror 
at the judgement-seat of Christ? Must I hear that 
Redeemer bid you depart from him, as cursed, into 
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels ? 
And must I, who have so often prayed for your sal- 
vation, and preached for your salvation, add my 
hearty amen to the sentence of your eternal dam- 
nation ? God forbid ! 

Let me then beseech you now, without a moment's 
delay, to consider your ways. Oh, listen to the 
Lord's invitations ! believe his self-giving declarations 
and promises, which, times without number, have, with 
some measure of earnestness, been sounded in your 
ears ! For the Lord's sake dare not, at your infinite 
peril, to see me again in your sins, and refusers of my 
glorious Redeemer and Master ! Oh, give him your 
hearts — give him your hearts ! I never complained 
of your giving me too little. Nay, I thought myself 
happier than most of my brethren, as to all outward 
matters. But I always thought and complained that 
you did not use my Master, Christ, as I wished, in your 
hearts, lives, and houses. And now I ask nothing 
for myself, or any of my family, bat make this my 
dying request, that you would now receive my Master, 
Christ, into your hearts and houses. Could my soul 
speak back to you from the eternal state ; could all 



194 



LIFE AND REMAINS OF 



my rotting bones and sinews, and every bit of my body, 
speak back to you from the grave ; they should all 
cry, O that ye were wise ! that ye understood this ! 
that ye would consider your latter end ! O that ye 
would give my Master, Christ, these ignorant, guilty, 
polluted, and enslaved, hearts of yours ! that he, as 
made of God to you wisdom, and righteousness, and 
sanctification, and redemption, might enter in and 
fill them for ever with his grace and truth ! Oh, say 
not to a dying, a dead minister, — rather, Oh, say not 
to a living Redeemer, and to his Father and to his 
blessed Spirit — nay. 

Dearly beloved, whom I wish to be my joy and 
crown in the day of the Lord, surfer me to speak 
from the dead to you. Let me exhort you, by all 
your inexpressible sinfulness and misery ; by all the 
perfections, words, and works of God ; by all the 
excellencies, offices, relations, labours, sufferings, 
glory, and fulness of Christ; by all the joys of heaven, 
and horrors of hell ; now to make serious work of 
the eternal salvation of your souls. Try what im- 
provements you have made of all my ministrations. 
Call to mind what of my texts, sermons, or other 
instructions, you can ; and pray them over before the 
Lord, applying them closely to your own conscience 
and heart. Wash yourselves thoroughly, in the 
blood of Jesus Christ, from all the sins of holy things 
since you and I met together. 

I recommend to you, young persons, my two 
Addresses annexed to my Catechisms ; and to you, 



THE REV. JOHN BROWN. 



195 



parents and masters, my Address in the Awakening- 
call, and my Sermons on the raising up children to 
Christ, as a part of my dying words to you. They 
will rise up in judgment against you if you contemn 
them. 

With respect to your obtaining another minister — 
let me beseech you by much fervent prayer to get 
him first from the Lord. And let it be your care 
to call one whose sermons you find to touch your 
consciences. May the Lord preserve you from such 
as aim chiefly to tickle your fancy, and seek themselves 
rather than Jesus Christ the Lord. Let there be no 
strife among you in calling him. And when you get 
him, labour at his entrance to receive his message 
from Christ with great greediness. Let your vacancy 
make you hungry and fit for the gospel. And let all 
hands and hearts be intent on raising up a seed for 
Christ in poor, withered, and wicked East Lothian. 

Oh, how it would delight my soul to be informed, 
in the manner of the eternal state, that Christ had 
come along with my successor, conquering and to 
conquer ! How gladly should I see you and him by 
hundreds at the right hand of Christ, at the great day, 
though I should scarcely have my ten ! Oh, if Christ 
were so exalted, so remembered among you, as to 
make me scarcely thought of, I desire to decrease, 
that he may increase ! 

Now, unto him that loved us, and washed us from 
our sins in his blood, and hath given us everlasting 
consolation and good hope through Christ, be honour, 



19(> LIFE AND REMAINS OF, &C. 

and glory, and dominion, and blessing, for ever and 

ever ! 

e< This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all ac- 
ceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to 
save sinners, of whom I am the chief." 

Your once affectionate pastor, 

John Brown. 



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